Rebuilding
by thehistorygeek
Summary: Seqeul to "Walking in the Devastated Area". Vaughn and Chelsea return to the island, only to find it abandoned because of a storm. They now have to find the missing residents and the one person who can turn it all around. Plus, this was no ordinary storm.
1. Centre of the Storm

**First chapter XD It took me like an hour to write this, then about twenty minutes to edit and fix any mistakes :3 Hopefully it's better written then the last two... I'm working hard to improve :) Dont' expect an update soon, though. I might be going to see a movie this afternoon, and then I have to pack some things because we're going to Great Wolf Lodge with our friends tomorrow, and we'll be staying until Monday. But I'll try my best to get an update in today.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Centre of the Storm

"No..." I muttered softly at the sight before me. "No, no, no..." I collapsed onto the soft sand beneath me, tears welling up in my eyes.

Vaughn knelt beside me, and wrapped his arms around me.

"This can't be real..." I whispered, burying my face in his shoulder.

Sunny Island was... empty.

None of our friends were here... Julia wasn't there freaking out about something... Taro wasn't yelling at someone... Eliza wasn't bragging about her doll's new hairdo... Nothing. Denny's shack was a pile of wood, sitting by the cliff. His giant fish print was sticking out of the rubble, like a grave marker.

Vaughn pulled me to my feet, and began leading me away from the beach. We were lifeless ghosts, stumbling into town. The destruction was even more terrifying there. Every house lay in ruins, bits and pieces of furniture and decorations poking out. People were digging through the sorry remains of the houses, trying to clear it all away, people I've never met before, digging through the ruins of my friends houses... like robbers.

Right before we were about to enter my farm to survey the damaged there, we were stopped.

"Sorry, no one can get past here without a pass." A man said, crossing his arms across his chest. He was wearing torn jeans and a dirty white t-shirt with work boots. He had short brown hair, and piercing blue eyes.

"But it's my farm!" I cried.

The man chuckled. "Like I haven't heard that before..." he scoffed. "Now run along. This place is too dangerous for kids like you."

"I'm twenty-two!" I screamed. "And I want to see _my_ farm!"

"No can do," the man said. "I can't trust that you're the owner, so I can't let you pass."

"Can you at least let me see my cow?" I begged.

"Cow?" the man asked, a confused expression on his face. "There's no cow in there."

"Yes there is!" I exclaimed, not believing what he just said. "There's a cow in the barn! Her name is Ella!"

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about," the man said. "When I got here, this place was empty. No cows, no chickens, no people."

I stood there in silence for a minute, staring at my ranch behind the man. Suddenly, I started running towards it, as fast as I could. I dashed towards the barn, not daring to look back. I could hear the man's heavy footsteps behind me as he tried to catch me.

I stopped in front of the barn, and felt tears welling up in my eyes all over again. It was in shambles, just like everything else. I fell to my knees, and cried. I just cried right there in front of my destructed barn, probably the place where my cow lay buried.

The man came racing up beside me, and I continued to cry as he picked me up and carried me back to the entrance of my farm.

"Can you at least tell me what happened... and where everyone went?" I sobbed as he sat me down on the ground. I got up, and dusted some dirt off my clothes.

The man shook his head. "All I know is that a huge storm hit this place, and all the islanders were evacuated."

"Do you know where they went?" Vaughn asked gruffly.

"No," the man said. I could tell he was getting annoyed. "Now leave. Unless you wanna work." With that said, the man turned back to my ranch.

Vaughn led me back to the beach, where I sat myself down beside the boulder that rested in the corner.

"What do we do now?" I asked, wiping the tears away. "Everyone's gone..."

"We can at least check to see if the Witch Princess is here," Vaughn said, grabbing my hand.

I nodded solemnly, and got up. We walked back into town, making sure to avoid my ranch and that man. When we got to the river, we found the bridge was collapsed.

"What do we do now?" I asked, looking up at Vaughn.

"We jump," Vaughn said plainly.

"What?" I exclaimed. "You can't just jump a river!"

"Sure you can," Vaughn said with a smirk. The next thing I knew, he had taken a few steps back and was running at the river. Right as I thought he was going to fall in, he jumped up and landed on the other side.

"Vaughn!" I screamed.

"Get over here," Vaughn said, taking a few steps back into the forest.

"No!" I called to him. "_You_ get over _here_!"

"I'm not moving until you jump over that river,"

I glared at him, but did it anyway. I took about five steps back, and ran as fast as possible towards the river. I stumbled a bit before I jumped, and nearly fell into the river when I tried to land. But I made it.

Vaughn helped me up off the ground where I had fallen, and we walked towards the Witch Princess's house.

Branches and stones were strewn all across the path, and a few trees had actually fallen down. I suspected it was all from that storm the man had told us about...

"So, where is this Witch Princess?" Vaughn asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Down this way," I said, grabbing his hand. "That is, if she's still here..." I led him down the path, and over a tree that had fallen over the path. We were on a narrow path now, surrounded by trees and debris. I began running now, dragging Vaughn along behind me. We soon arrived at Witch Princess's house, which somehow managed to survive the storm, unlike every other building on the island.

I let go of Vaughn's hand and slowly approached the house. Reaching out, I grasped the doorknob and slowly turned it. The door creaked open, revealing an empty room. I stepped inside, and Vaughn followed.

The house was completely empty. The only things left were a few papers scattered around, some potions and books, Witch's bed, and a giant cauldron.

"She's not here," I said quietly, seeing the room empty of any witch.

"She must have left with all the other islanders during the storm," Vaughn suggested, sitting beside me.

Suddenly, I froze.

"Chelsea?" Vaughn asked. "Are you ok?"

I shook my head. I remembered something from when I came here the first time, to find the Witch Princess... "Vaughn, this wasn't an ordinary storm," I said, looking at him. "When I went to Sunny Island the first time, we got turned back because of a storm."

"Yeah," Vaughn said. "So?"

"The island... there was something weird about it." I continued. "Like it was the centre of everything... the eye of the storm."

Vaughn looked down at the floor, biting his lip.

"But what does that mean?" he asked. "Why would this island, of all places, be the centre of a storm?"

I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "But I think it might have something to do with the last big storm, the one that evacuated this island in the first place, before I washed up here."

Vaughn shook his head, as if what I was saying was crazy.

"Vaughn, I'm serious," I cried, gripping his arm. "This storm wasn't normal. Someone created it... on purpose."

**Me: There'll be no stable Talk Show in this story. I'll just do it when I feel like it because, honestly, it was a bit tedious D: Sorry if you really liked it :{ But I do have a contest: first person to review gets to be a guest on the Talk Show and gets their name put in this story, second person gets to be on the talk show, and third person gets their name in here. Ok? Ready, Set, GOOO!**


	2. Dream

**Winners of the Chapter 1 Contest: First place goes to Art Witch - Aka Mizu! Second place goes to lollipopdiego! And third place goes to Ashley0120!**

**Art Witch - Aka Mizu's name (Aka) will be featured in this chapter, and a few after this, then she'll be in the talk show at the end of this one :) lollipopdiego will be in the next talk show in chapter 4, and Ashley0120's name (Ashley) will be featured in the next chapter or so. **

**:D**

Dream

I leaned against the rail of the boat, watching Sunny Island disappear once again. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and I felt weak and tired. Why was my life so difficult?

First, I nearly died when a house collapsed on top of me. Then, I got accused of something I didn't do and had to run away from a corporate giant. And now, Sunny Island, my home, was abandoned and no one knows where everyone went.

Great. Just great.

I wiped away the tears and went to sit beside Vaughn. He was staring at the floor, his eyes blank. I looped my arm through his and rested my head on his shoulder.

"What now?" I whispered softly, closing my eyes.

"I don't know..." Vaughn said, kissing the top of my head. "I guess we go to the city and see if anyone knows what happened."

"I doubt anyone knows," I said. "What if they're... dead?"

"They're not dead," Vaughn said, looking down at me. "Trust me."

I nodded solemnly and got up. "I'm going to go down to the cabin..." I said. "I'm tired..."

Vaughn nodded, and I hurried below deck to the cabin we had been given for the trip. As soon as I got in there, I collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep. Soon, I started dreaming I was back on the island, and everything was normal again...

_I was sitting on a blanket on the beach, with Vaughn beside me. Almost everyone on the island was there, enjoying the hot summer afternoon._

_But something was different... Everyone seemed older and Taro was missing. I guessed he was just back home, being Taro. _

_Julia walked up beside me, a little girl with pink hair beside her, holding her hand. The girl's hair was in two pigtails tied together by blue ribbons, and she was wearing a cute light blue bathing suit with frills at the end._

"_Hi, Chelsea," Julia said with a smile. _

"_Hey, Julia," I heard myself say. I looked at the little girl and smiled at her._

_The little girl smiled back. "Hi, Auntie Chelsea," she said._

_Auntie? How was I her aunt...? Maybe she considered me her aunt or something..._

_Julia sat herself down on the sand, and the little girl sat in her lap. _

_Julia opened her mouth as if to say something, but before she could, a huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and whipped the sand up everywhere. I closed my eyes and swung at the sand to try and get it away from me._

When I opened my eyes, I was lying in the cabin bed, and Vaughn was gently shaking me.

"Chelsea..." he said. "Chelsea... Time to wake up. We're at the city."

I nodded, dazed, and climbed out of bed. As we were walking back up to the deck, I told Vaughn about my dream.

"That's weird..." Vaughn said, raising an eyebrow. "But I'm sure it didn't mean anything. Dreams rarely do."

"Yeah," I said with a weak smile. "You're right. I'm probably just missing the island and everyone a lot..."

The boat docked, and we clambered off into the city with everyone else.

"Where do we go now?" I asked as we stopped in front of a restaurant.

"I guess we need a place to stay..." Vaughn said, sighing. "If we're going to stay here."

"Well there's no shortage of hotels," I said, and grabbed a map of the city from some guy who was handing them out in front of the restaurant. When I opened it up, I found to hotel mark and searched the map for it. In a few seconds, I had found at least a dozen hotels.

"But we don't have enough money to stay at a hotel," Vaughn pointed out.

I thought for a minute. "Then where do we go?" I folded up the map and stuck it in my rucksack.

"What about your sister?" Vaughn asked. "In Forget-Me-Not Valley?"

"I guess we could go stay with her," I said. "We have nowhere else to go."

Vaughn nodded and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small black wallet and reached inside of that. When he pulled his hand out he was holding a small wad of cash.

"Is that all the money we have?" I asked.

"Yeah," Vaughn said quietly. He started flipping through the money, counting aloud. When he was done, he looked back up at me. "We have just enough money to buy one-way tickets to Forget-Me-Not Valley."

I nodded, and we started towards the docks at the other end of the city, where the boat to Forget-Me-Not Valley was.

I was starting to get tired of boats. It seems all I ever did was ride to and from places on ships, ferries, boats...

"It'll be ok," Vaughn snapped me from my thoughts when he put his arm around my shoulders.

We walked in silence until we reached the docks, where we bought two tickets to Forget-Me-Not Valley and boarded the ship. I sat down on a chair the leaned against the rail, and Vaughn sat beside me.

A few minutes later, the boat started moving along. Waves lapped against the side of the boat and water splashed up into my face. I was turned around in my seat watching the city disappear when someone sat down beside me.

I turned to see a young woman who seemed about my age looking at the ocean. She had dark brown hair with loose curls that framed her face, light brown eyes and glasses. She was wearing a white and light blue striped tank top, white shorts, and silver strapped sandals.

When she turned back from the ocean, she jumped a little in her seat when she saw me.

"Oh, hello," she said, putting her hand on her chest. "You scared me!"

I sat down properly in my seat and smiled at her. "I'm sorry," I apologized. "Didn't mean to scare you... I'm Chelsea."

"Aka," the woman said.

"What a nice name," I said. I turned to face Vaughn and poked him on the shoulder. He was staring empty eyed at the floor.

"What?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the floor.

"Come say hi," I said, tugging at his sleeve.

"To who?" he stopped staring at the floor and looked at me. His eyes were sad and life less.

"Her," I put a hand on Aka's shoulder. "Aka, this is Vaughn."

"Hello," Aka said, smiling kindly.

"Hi," Vaughn said coldly, and started looking back at the floor.

"Don't worry," I said, seeing Aka's hurt expression. "He's just... upset."

"Why?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Well..." I sighed, leaning back in my chair.

I started telling her the whole story, starting when Jonathon arrived on the island.

"Aw, I'm so sorry!" Aka said, hugging me. "I would be _very_ upset if that happened to me!"

I nodded. "So now we're going to stay with my sister in Forget-Me-Not Valley."

"Really?" Aka said, pulling away from me. "I'm going to Forget-Me-Not Valley too!"

"Cool," I said, not knowing what else to say. "Why?"

"My great-aunt Romana and cousin Lumina are there," Aka said. "I'm going to visit them for the rest of the summer."

"Oh," I said. "Forget-Me-Not Valley's really nice. Of course, the last time I was there it was because I was hiding from the police..."

Aka nodded, and we sat in silence for the rest of the ride.

**Me: Hello and welcome to the Rebuilding Talk Show! Our guest today is Art Witch - Aka Mizu, or Aka.**

**Aka: Hello!**

**Me: So, how do you like the story so far?**

**Aka: So far, the story is very interesting. It's much like a soap opera. It's hard to believe that after they go through all the trouble of getting home, everyone's just gone! In other words, I love it. **

**Me: Haha, yeah... Did you like the two stories before this one?**

**Aka: Yes I LOVED Ruins and Walking in a Devastated Area .They're like separate stories that fit together.**

**Me: Yeah, I got all your reviews and I was just like... :O Woah... How do you think this will all play out?**

**Aka: I think they'll find everyone and the villagers will explain what happened. I think the W. Princess has something to do with it. **

**Me: Probably. So what made you start reading these stories?**

**Aka: I was looking through Denny X Chelsea fics, and I saw your 'lost chapter' of Fearless. So, I checked out Fearless. I'm the kind of person who looks through other stories by authors I like, so I eventually decided to read Ruins. **

**Me: Cool. What's your favourite HM couple?**

**Aka: My favorite HM couple is (obviously) Denny and Chelsea! Yay! :3**

**Me: Yeah, Denny's pretty cool :3 But I like my cold cowboys! Well, thank you!**

**Aka: Your welcome! ******


	3. Hope

**I've been neglecting this poor story *fail*. But, I finally finished the third chapter and got it up! HAPPY DANCEEE! Ashley will probably be feature in the next chapter, and Diego will be a guest in the next chapter's Talk Show. Ok? Ok.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Hope

When we docked in Forget-Me-Not Valley, Vaughn, Aka, and I got off the boat together. We walked off the beach and into town, where Vaughn and I headed for Jill's farm and Aka left for Romana's villa.

Jill was standing in her pasture, brushing her cow. I walked over to the pasture fence and leaned on it.

"Jill," I said, looking at her.

My little sister jumped and spun around.

"Chelsea!" she cried. "You scared me! What are you doing here?"

"The island..." I said quietly. "It's been abandoned."

"What?" Jill cried, rushing away from her cow and towards the fence. "How can it be abandoned?"

"Everyone's gone," I explained. "And the place is in ruins. Everything's destroyed..."

Jill's eyes grew huge and the colour drained from her face. "Oh no..." she whispered. "H-How could that happen?"

"There was a storm," I said, feeling tears well up in my eyes. "It was the one that made my ship turn back from Sunny Island. It was huge..."

"Oh, Chelsea," Jill said. She leaned over the fence and hugged me tightly.

Even though I tried not to, I burst out in tears, and sobbed into Jill's shoulder. My sister rubbed my back comfortingly and told me it will be ok.

"But we have no idea where everyone else is..." I wailed. "An-And there was something different about this storm... It seemed like someone made it... I-Intentionally..."

Jill pulled away and looked me in the face. "Chelsea," she sighed. "That doesn't make sense. Why would, how would, someone _make_ a storm?"

"I-I don't know," I said quietly. "When I went there to find the Witch Princess the first time, it looked like the island was the centre of everything... There were dark clouds swirling around it and the storm seemed harder there..."

"I don't know, Chels," Jill said. "It seems pretty unreasonable..."

"But it's true..." I whispered.

Jill must have noticed the desperate look on my face, for she pulled me into another hug and patted my back. "All right, Chelsea," she said. "I believe you." She pulled away from me again and leaned back, hanging onto the fence so she didn't fall down. "So, you need to stay with me until you find everyone from the island?"

I nodded.

"Ok then!" Jill said, jumping over the fence. "My house may be small, but we made it work with four people, we can make it work with three..."

Jill set up a mattress on the floor near the door for Vaughn and I, and we put our bags down by the kitchen.

My sister made a delicious marinade and meuniere set for dinner, and we all sat down at her little dining room table.

"So," Jill started, spearing a piece of fish on her meuniere set with her fork and dipping it in some butter. "Do you guys have _any_ idea where everyone might have gone?"

"No," I told her, eating some marinade. "We got to the island and everything was destroyed, and the only people there were workers cleaning the place up."

"Huhm," Jill said sadly, putting the fish in her mouth. "Did the workers tell you anything important?"

"Just that there was a huge storm," Vaughn said quietly, picking out the turnips and tomatoes in his marinade and only eating the fish. "And that the residents were evacuated, but no one knows where."

"Oh, I hope they're all right," I said, putting my fork down.

"I'm sure they are," Jill said soothingly, putting her hand on top of mine.

* * *

I got up early the next morning and went for a walk around the valley. I walked around the residential area and stopped in front of the long walkway up to the villa. Someone was bounding down it, dark brown curls bouncing behind them.

"Aka!" I shouted, and waved at her.

She waved back, and hurried down the walkway. "Hey, Chelsea," Aka said when she got to the bottom. "How are you?"

"Ok, I guess," I shrugged. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," Aka replied, sighing.

"Oh," I said quietly. "Why not?"

"I don't know," she said. "Just couldn't sleep..."

I nodded, and started walking.

"Well bye," I called over my shoulder.

"See ya later," I heard Aka call back, and then heard her feet scuffing against the dirt path.

I walked down to the beach, where I sat a few feet from the waves on the sand. The sun was just beginning to rise, turning the scene around me different shades of orange and yellow and red. I sighed and closed my eyes, letting the wind whip up my hair and clothes.

I don't know how long I sat like that. I was snapped out my thoughts when someone came up behind me and put their hands on my shoulders.

Screaming, I jumped a little and spun around to see Vaughn standing there.

"Vaughn!" I cried, smacking his leg. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry," Vaughn said, sitting down beside me. He put his arms around my shoulders and rested his head on mine.

"How long do think we'll have to stay here?" I whispered, looking up at him.

His purple eyes were deep in thought, staring out at the ocean.

"I don't know, Chels," he sighed. "As long as we have to, I guess."

"I hope it's not long," I said, closing my eyes. "I miss everyone so much..."

"I do too," Vaughn said, kissing the top of my head. "I may not show it, but I do care for them. Everyone. Even Elliot."

I smiled at his last comment, and snuggled closer to him.

"Do you think Julia will have her baby soon?" I asked.

"Probably," Vaughn said. "It's almost the end of the summer. She's due any day now."

"I wish I were there with her," I told him.

Vaughn nodded. "Knowing her, she's probably going to refuse to give birth without you." He joked.

I laughed, and nodded. "Probably," I said. "But hopefully we'll find everyone before then, and the Witch Princess will turn back time to before Jonathon stole from Regis and everything will be ok..."

"I sure hope so," Vaughn said, hugging me tightly.

**Me: Hurray! Ok, so I have this Harvest Moon Forum called Sunshine Islands RP, which, obviously, takes place on the Sunshine Island :P If you could check it out, that'd be great but you don't have to join or anything... unless you want to. Heh, heh... *wink, wink, nudge, nuge***


	4. Light as a Feather

**I feel dumb... Dunnananana... I knew that I would now... Dunnanananana... I feel dumb, so dumb, so dumb!**

**Vell, why do I feel dumb, you ask? Because, I've had this chapter finished for like a month now! When I went to update it, that little error message popped up and I couldn't update until I found the trick. Buuuuut, I totally forgot about this chapter and thought I had already posted it. Sew, I didn't realize I HADN'T update until I went to update chapter 5 ^o^ **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Light as a Feather

That afternoon we started the long search for our missing family and friends. We started with the Internet, using Jill's computer.

I opened up Google and typed in, "Sunny Island". An online news article popped up, and I clicked on that. There was a map of the island in the top left corner, and a whole article about the storm and the missing residents. Nothing about where they are or might have gone.

Going back to the search results, I clicked on an online encyclopaedia page about the Island. There was absolutely nothing on the storm except for when it hit, and what the damages were.

Vaughn, Jill, and I went through twelve different pages about the Island before giving up. Jill suggested we look up different islanders.

We decided not to Julia or Lanna, since Julia was in the News for the whole house collapse thing and Lanna's a famous semi-retired pop star.

Instead, we started with Natalie. I typed in her full name and nothing came up except for some of her social network profiles, and there was nothing about where she was on those.

Next we typed in Sabrina's name, and a few pages on her appeared but there was still nothing on her whereabouts. We did Regis next, and there was still nothing on where he was.

We gave up after we had typed in every resident's name, even Witch Princess, Shea, and Wada's.

Sighing, I leaned back in the chair and got up.

"We're never going to find them," I said. "Never, ever, _ever_!"

"We could go to the city and file a Missing Persons report," Vaughn suggested, shoving his hands in his pockets. "They could send a search team and stuff."

Jill nodded. "That's a good idea," she said. "But it would take a while before they actually get a lead on anything or even start. Do you know how many people go missing in the city every season?"

I shrugged, and looked at Vaughn.

"It's true," he said, nodding. "I lived in the city for years. At least ten people go missing a season."

I groaned and collapsed onto Jill's bed.

"Would they work faster if they knew a celebrity and a very rich and powerful man were among the missing?" I asked, staring at the white ceiling.

"I don't know," Vaughn said. "Maybe."

I said up and smiled.

"Good," I said. "Because Lanna and Regis, a celebrity and very rich and powerful man, are missing."

"It might not make them move any faster," Jill said. "You never know."

"We could at least _try_!" I exclaimed. "And if it works or not, we should look for them ourselves."

"Chelsea," Jill said, sitting down beside. "Maybe you should give up. They could be dead or living on some deserted island. It could take us years to find them. You could find your whole life searching and never even get a clue to as where they are."

I glared at my little sister, feeling something bubble up inside me until I was about to explode.

"We will find them!" I screeched. "And I'm not giving up until we do!"

With that said I jumped up and ran out of the house, slamming the door behind me.

I didn't know where I was going. I just wanted to get away from there.

_What's wrong with me? Why am I letting this control how I act? They're my friends and I know I should be worried, but not enough to yell at my sister and run from her house..._

_They're not just your friends... they're your family._

I froze. Who said that? I looked around, but there was almost no one around, and those who were ignored me and went on with their lives. Was it... in my head? Oh, man, are those freaky voices back! I haven't heard from them since I woke up from my coma!

Growling under my breath, I hurried down the street and walked into the first building that caught my eye. The Blue Bar. I liked the music that came from its open windows and the word "Bar" appealed to me.

I pushed open the door and slid into one of the green-velvet stools in front of the counter. There was a hippie with a tall green hat, purple sunglasses, and a beard to my right, Gustafa, and an old man with bushy gray hair around his hair and a moustache who was wearing blue overalls with a smiley face on it, Kassey, was beside the hippy. There was another old guy who looked just like the first one, except his overalls were green and had a pink tulip on them, Patrick.

Behind the counter there was a very pretty young girl who seemed about the same age as me with curly blonde hair and bright green eyes with a black headband pushing the hair from her face. She was wearing a gorgeous red dress, a blue cardigan, and black high heels, Muffy.

There was also a man behind the counter who seemed to be about thirty, with long brown hair in a ponytail and a moustache, and small black eyes. He had on a white and brown leather jacket, jeans, and brown steel toed boots, Griffon.

Muffy smiled at me and cocked her head to the side. "Hello, Chelsea," she said. "I didn't think I'd see you back here so soon, what with you being proclaimed innocent and all."

"I had nowhere else to go..." I said, looking at the floor. "The island I used to live on is abandoned... no one's there anymore."

"Oh my!" Muffy cried, gasping. "That's terrible!"

I nodded. "There was this huge storm and they got evacuated, but I have no idea where and no one's seen them."

She shook her head and clucked her tongue. "What a shame..." she muttered. "Well, can I get you anything to drink?"

Looking at the menu that laid on the counter, I nodded.

"What'll it be?" Muffy asked, taking a glass from the shelf behind her.

I scanned over the menu quickly. "Summer Heat," I mumbled, and closed my eyes.

When I opened them, Muffy was pouring some orange liquid into the glass that was already halfway filled with something red, then added a misty-looking drink. She then put a stick with pineapple, oranges, and grapes speared onto it the drink and top it all off with a little pink umbrella.

"There you go," she said, sliding the drink towards me. "300 G, please."

I fished in my pocket and pulled out the money, and gave it to her.

"Enjoy," Muffy said with a smile, and stuck the money somewhere behind the counter.

I took a sip of the drink, and smiled. It tasted nice... and the fruit gave it a tropical feel. I kept taking sips of it until the glass was empty. The world was getting fuzzy, and all my worries were blurred along with it. I ordered another drink, a Morning Mist, and drowned that in twenty minutes.

That's when the world completely blurred out, and I felt as carefree and light as a feather.

**Me: And heeeere's Diego! So, how do you like the story so far?**

**Diego: It's pretty awesome, and I can see a MASSIVE improvement since September. ;) I like the plot, it's twisted and suspenseful!**

**Me: What do you think of the two stories before this one?**

**Diego: I loved them both, really - the second one was intense, though, haha, it was kind of weird... o.o but I still liked it. :D I sucked at reviewing "Walking in the Devasted Area" LOL.**

**Me: If they find the Witch Princess, do you think she'll be able to turn back time?**

**Diego: I don't know, because thier relationship with the W.P. hasn't really been described yet. W.P. may hate them or not... she may be reluctant to turn back time, I think.**

**Me: Do you think Vaughn and Chelsea will finally get married in this story?**

**Diego: Yeah, man, I mean, it's YOU. You always have them get married... XD hahahaha!**

**Me: And our last and most serious question... *lights dim* What's your favourite flavour of lollipop?**

**Diego: Grape & cherry. :D**

**Me: Thank yous! Bye!**

**Diego: Ta ta for now!**


	5. Arguing

**Heeeeeeere's chapter 5 :) I would've uploaded it last night but I was too tired -.- I know for a FACT that Ashley'll be in the next chapter, since I'm writing it right now :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Arguing

My eyes fluttered open and quickly adjusted to the blinding light around me. I soon realized I was staring up at the familiar roof of Jill's house. How did I get there? Last thing I remember, I was at the bar annoying Gustafa.

_Stupid hippie..._ I thought angrily, and turned over into my pillow.

Suddenly, my head began pounding as if someone were banging a nail into it with a sledgehammer. And that sledgehammer broke.

_Oh sweet, Goddess!_

I moaned and buried my face deeper into the pillow.

"Chelsea?"

I lifted my head up halfway from the pillow, and squinted at the two blurry figures in front of me.

"Huh...?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. The blurriness cleared and I saw Vaughn and Jill looking down at me.

"Are you ok?" Jill asked, kneeling down beside me. "We found you passed out in my barn at like midnight last night."

"What?" I said, shaking my head.

Oh, ouch... Looks like they got a new heavy-duty sledgehammer... with a drill extension.

"You seemed drunk," Vaughn said, chuckling.

"You could barely stand," Jill agreed. "And you kept muttering 'stupid hippie' and swatting at the air."

I could feel my cheeks heat up. Moaning, I fell back onto the pillow.

"I'm guessing you were at the Blue Bar," Jill said, patting my back. "I did the same thing once. My turnips had died and I was stressed so I went to the Blue Bar, got drunk, and woke up the next morning with a killer headache in the middle of one of Vesta's fields."

"And she wasn't mad?" Vaughn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope," Jill said, shaking her head. "Well, except she almost beat me with a sickle because she thought I was Murry..."

I smiled into the pillow, and lightly shook my head.

"How much did you drink?" Vaughn asked, squatting beside Jill. "You seem beat."

"I don't know..." I mumbled. "I lost track after four..."

Jill sighed and shook her head. "I'll get you some Aspirin." She got up and went over to the kitchen.

Vaughn put his hand on my head and began stroking my hair. It felt calming, even though it didn't soothe that striking pain in my head.

_Damn, those drinks are strong!_

_That's what you get for drinking so much!_

I froze. It's that same voice again; the one I heard last night. Trying to remember what it had said, I could only recollect the words _not, friends, _and _family_.

_Go away. _I snapped.

_I can't._ The voice replied. _I'm __**you**__! It'd be like asking yourself to leave._

_Well then, can you at least shut up?_

_... Nah._

_I hate you._

_So now you hate yourself? Should I be calling a counsellor?_

_You know that's not what I meant._

_Yeah... so?_

"Here you go,"

I stopped arguing with the voice and turned away from the pillow. I grabbed the two pills and the glass of water Jill was offering me, and sat up.

"So, how do you feel?" Jill asked after I had taken the pills.

"Like shit," I responded, collapsing onto the bed.

Jill nodded. "You were _really_ drunk last night." She said. "You kept cursing and stumbling. At one point, you said something like, 'Where are we going? I need to get back to Sunny Island... Julia's having her baby!'"

I froze.

"You really want to go back," Jill said.

I nodded.

Jill bit her bottom lip. "I'm going to the city, to the police station," she said, getting up. "They have to know _something_!"

"I'm going with you," I said, also standing up.

"No," Jill said, trying to push me down. "You're too tired. You need to rest."

"I'm going," I growled, determined to be there when even the littlest thing is found about where everyone is.

My sister looked at me for a second, and then grabbed her coat. "Hurry up and get dressed then,"

I scrambled to get dressed, and hurried outside to meet my sister. She had packed us each a suitcase, in case we stayed in the city longer than a day. Vaughn was to stay behind and look after Jill's farm.

As we were about to leave to go catch the boat, I ran up to Vaughn and wrapped my arms around him.

"I'll see you later," I whispered, and kissed him.

He gratefully kissed me back, and I smiled onto his lips. When we pulled away, I ran after Jill, turning back only once to wave a final good-bye.

As Jill and I walked onto the ferry, I could see Aka sitting on the beach staring curiously at us. There was a book in her hands, and she seemed to have been relaxing on a beach towel. Her head was cocked slightly to the side, and she looked like a confused dog.

I smiled lightly and waved at her. After a few seconds, she waved back. Soon, Forget-Me-Not Valley disappeared, and I sat down beside Jill.

"So, where do we go first when we get to the city?" I asked, looking at her.

"I guess we should go to the police station," Jill suggested. "See what they can do."

I nodded, and looked out at the ocean.

"But what if they can't do anything?" I asked.

"You need to stop asking 'what if'," my little sister said, crossing her arms. "There is no 'what if'! We'll find them, even if it takes us ten years! I'll hire a team of private investigators if I have to! I'll pay a thousand G each day!"

I looked at her, not knowing what to say. She hardly knew these people!

_She really cares about you. _The voice in the back of my head said.

I nodded, as if agreeing with a real person.

**Wouldn't it be weird arguing with a voice inside your head? o.O Luckily, it's never happened to me and hopefully it will _never _happen!**

**Please review!**


	6. Looking Some More

**Oh yeah! Take that! I got in _another_ update like ten minutes after the last! But don't worry, I've been working on this chapter all day, so it's not horrible done. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Looking Some More

When we docked in the city, Jill and I hurried to the police station, not worrying about the suitcases we were lugging behind us. As we opened the doors, a woman with wavy blonde hair and bright blue eyes looked up at us from behind a desk.

"Can I help you?" she asked, furrowing her brows.

_What is this, an office building?_ I thought, as I saw that the woman was wearing a frilly pink shirt and black pants.

"Uh, yeah..." Jill said, scooting forward a bit. I stood behind her like a scared little girl, glancing at the woman.

"Don't be worried," the woman said, coming out from behind the desk. "We'll do whatever we can to help you."

"Is this really a police station?" I butted in. "Because I didn't know police stations had secretaries."

"Oh, I'm not a secretary. But we do have a real secretary." the woman said, laughing. "I'm actually a police officer. Our secretary is just out today."

"Um... ok..." I said, taking a cautious step forward.

"I'm Ashley," she said suddenly. "Now, what's your problem?"

"We're here to file a missing persons report," Jill said, twiddling her fingers.

"Oh, ok," Ashley said, seemingly cheery despite the grim situation. "What's their name?"

"Er..." Jill said, looking at me. "There's more than one person missing."

"Ok," Ashley said, digging through her desk and pulling out a pen and notepad. "How many people?"

Jill and I both thought for a minute, contemplating how many people were on the island.

"Twenty-two," I finally said.

Ashley's eyes widened, and she looked at Jill and I like we were crazy.

"Twenty-two?" she cried. "What are you, missing an entire _island_?"

"Actually, yes," I said, nodding. "So can you help us or not?"

"We can," Ashley said, sighing. "But it may take a while. Just give me their full names; first, middle, and last. Then, I'll try and find them in our search engine."

I nodded, and started naming off everyone.

"Julia Isabella Wilkens, or Julia Isabella Logan. Mirabelle Anna Wilkens Logan. Mark David Brown. Elliot Henry McPhearson. Natalie Olivia McPhearson. Felicia Penelope McPhearson. Taro Bernardo McPhearson. Denny Solomon Fredrick. Pierre Jacques Gourmet. Sabrina Veronica Regison. Regis Julius Regison. Lanna Marie Hearthrow. Alisa Danielle Lili. Charlie Kim Chin. Chen Kim Chin. Eliza Theresa Marcelo. Gannon Isaac Marcelo. Nathan Samuel O'Connor.

"There's also two natives, Wada and Shea, and if you believe us, a witch and goddess."

Ashley raised an eyebrow at me when I said that there was a witch and goddess.

"Uh, ok..." she said, shaking her head. "Is that everyone?"

"Yep," I said, confirming in my head.

"We'll do our best." Ashley said, putting the notepad beside her computer. "So, can you tell me where you last saw them?"

I looked at Jill and shrugged. "Do you want the long story or the short?"

"Long," Ashley said. "We want as much detail as possible."

"Well, this _all_ started when Vaughn's thought-to-be-dead little brother, Jonathon, came to Sunny Island..." I started. "We all thought he was a curry chef, but he soon revealed he was a thief."

"I think I heard about this on TV!" Ashley cried, pointing at me. "He tried to steal from Regis, but you and that Vaughn fellow went to stop him, but were accused of thievery as well! You ran around, hiding from the law, until Regis declared you two and your sister innocent!"

I nodded. "But when we went back to Sunny Island, we found it was abandoned because a huge storm had struck and the residents, our friends and family, had to evacuate. We have no idea where they are now."

"We'll do our best to find them," Ashley said, putting her hand on my shoulder. "Especially since this is a whole _island_! I'll look them all up in our search engine to see if we know where they are, and if we don't, we'll send a search and rescue party out to look for them."

Search and rescue...

Suddenly, something popped into my mind.

"Was this the police station that was looking for that little girl from Zephyr Town?" I asked.

"Yes...?" Ashley said, looking at me weirdly.

"Did you ever find her?" I said.

Ashley nodded. "A few days after the search started, we found her in a tree in the middle of nowhere." She said. "Apparently she had been playing tag with her sister and a local boy when a huge animal started chasing her."

I smiled. "Thanks," I said. "So, your search engine... What does it do?"

"Well, we have a file of everyone who lives within a ten thousand mile radius of this city," Ashley explained, sitting at her computer and motioning for us to come join her. Pulling up a webpage that looked a lot like Google, except without the logo.

She looked at the notepad, and typed in Julia Isabella Wilkens in the search bar. After she pressed enter, it loaded for a bit then a little blue box appeared on the screen with a picture of Julia in the corner and her name beside it. Ashley clicked on it and all sorts of information appeared about Julia, like her name, parents, gender, birthday, and residence.

"Julia Isabella Wilkens," Ashley said, reading aloud. "Parents: Alexander Henry Logan and Mirabella Anna Wilkens. Gender: Female. Birthday: Spring 6th. Current Residence:... Unknown."

"Unknown?" I cried, staring at the screen. I grabbed the notepad and scanned over the names. "T-Try Lanna Marie Hearthrow! She's f-famous!"

Ashley sighed, and typed in Lanna Marie Hearthrow.

"Lanna Marie Hearthrow," she said. "Parents: Nathan William Hearthrow and Emily Pamela Jones. Gender: Female. Birthday: Fall 2nd. Current Residence: Unknown."

"W-What about Regis? Or S-Sabrina!" I yelled, my voice cracking.

"Chelsea," Jill said, grabbing my hand. "They don't know anything. But they'll find them. Won't you, Ashley?"

"We'll do our best," Ashley said, clicking out of the search engine. "I'll look up everyone else later, and if we still haven't found anything, I'll get a search and rescue team ready."

I shook my hand from Jill and put them in front of me.

"Thank you," I said to Ashley, going out in front of her desk. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"Here," Ashley handed me a little card with a number on it. "Call me if you need me."

I nodded, and stuck the card in my suitcase.

As I started making my way towards the exit, Jill said goodbye to Ashley and followed me.

**Chelsea went from sad and angry to calm pretty quickly, don't you think O.O **

**Please review!**


	7. Time

**This chapter is kind of crappy, and I can honestly say I have no excuse for it other than laziness ^^' I do like the ending though, which hopefully will make you fall out of your chair. xD**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Time

When Jill and I had checked into a hotel, I marched into the room, tossed my suitcase aside, and went straight to the bathroom. I didn't say anything to Jill; I didn't _have_ anything to say.

I took a nice, long bubble bath. While I was soaking in the warm water, I was thinking... about what had happened in my life, and what would have happened if Jonathon hadn't come to the island...

_I wouldn't be stuck in this hotel room in the middle of the city..._ I thought.

Vaughn and I wouldn't have had to run away from the law, and drag my little sister into it. We would have stayed with everyone else, and disappeared along with them.

_Or died with them._

There's that voice. That darn voice that's always echoing in the back of my mind. Sometimes I pictured it as my evil twin. The one that's mean and always looks at the dark side of life; negative. The side that thought all the islanders were dead, gone, right off the face of the earth.

I shook my head and water flew everywhere. Groaning, I dipped my head under the water and closed my eyes tightly.

* * *

The next day Ashley called us at 10am. She hadn't found anything about where everyone was, and was sending out e-mails and making phone calls to try and get a search and rescue team assembled.

Once she hung up, I collapsed on my bed and screamed to the roof.

"Quiet down, Chelsea!" Jill scolded in the typical mother-like way. "We're in a hotel!"

I glared at her, and buried my head in my pillow.

A few hours later we were back at the police station, and Ashley was showing us the search and rescue team she had assembled. They were tall, buff guys in bright red uniforms. Jill kept giggling and flirting with them, but they just ignored her.

"They're going to look all around the island for them, and then they'll scour as much as the ocean as they can, checking every island they come across." Ashley explained, smiling proudly.

"Won't that take a while?" I asked.

"And won't it be tiring?" Jill blurted in.

"For you maybe," Ashley scoffed. "But these men have been put through hours of intense training to prepare them for this exact situation. We chose only the best of the best for this mission."

"Yeah, ok," I said, nodding. "So when do they head out?"

"About an hour or so," Ashley said. "Their boat is getting ready at the city docks as we speak."

I smiled slightly. _Maybe_, I thought. _Just maybe they'll find them._

* * *

At 11:21am, Jill and I got on a search and rescue boat with Ashley. The search and rescue team was in a cabin, discussing where they would look and blah, blah, blah...

Jill and I stood on deck with Ashley, looking at the ocean. We left the city at 11:30, leaving it behind us.

I had decided that I wanted to go on the search, too.

"I can't let you go alone," Jill had said, smiling.

So, we were now on a boat on our way to Sunny Island. The water around the island wasn't that deep, and below-decks there was a small room with a glass floor so you could look into the ocean. Two of the men would be down there, scouring the ocean floor for a shipwreck. I prayed they wouldn't find anything.

* * *

Sunny Island loomed into view about an hour later. As we sailed closer to it, I could see that there were still people there trying to clear the debris. They had even started rebuilding some of the buildings.

We circled around the island slowly so the men below-decks could search the water thoroughly. I sat on a chair by the boat railing, wringing my hands and shaking nervously.

_Why don't they know where they are?_ I thought angrily to myself. _They should! SOMEONE should!_

We sailed around the island, getting closer and closer each time, for about three hours. Jill chatted happily with Ashley the whole time, while I just stared at the island.

This was crap. This whole thing was crap!

Soon we were too close to the island to keep going. Jill, Ashley, and I decided to get off and go look around the island while the boat went back out to sea to look some more.

I wandered through the familiar town, looking at the piles of rubble that sat side by side. There were about five people working at the site of Mirabelle's old house, putting in a new foundation.

I veered away from them, and found myself in East Town walking along the crumpling path. There were more people here, working to clear away the ruined houses. They paid no mind to me; it was as if I wasn't there.

I was soon beside the river, with the jungle on the other side. Shea... Wada... Were they still there? Or had they left with the others?

Taking a deep breath, I backed up a few feet then ran, jumping across the water. Stumbling a little when I landed, I fell to the ground.

As I coughed and opened my eyes, I nearly screamed at what I saw:

Elliot, covered in scrapes and bruises, and laying unconscious right in front of my face.

**Me: :O *eyes fall out of head* Haha... Sh'yeah... Ok, so anyone got any ideas for another contest? Because I was thinking of doing another one but have no idea what to do for it :P **


	8. Theory

**A seqeul idea has been forming in my mind since the last update... :D The next story won't be as long as this one or the two before it, though. The idea for the seqeul will also probably clash with this one, so near the end expect another plot to emerge.**

**I probably won't update Blue Moon or Hoping for Hope in a while. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Theory

The first thing I did was scream. And I don't mean your average, oh-my-god-there's-a-spider scream. I mean a blood curdling horror movie scream.

I jumped to my feet and backed about five feet from him. My hands clasped over my mouth, and I stood there staring at him, my eyes wide.

Jill and Ashley appeared beside me. I hadn't even realized they had come over.

"Chelsea, what's wrong?" Jill asked, looking at me with concern.

Ok, _how_ could she not see the pink-haired guy laying _unconscious_ in the middle of a jungle?

"E-Elliot..." I stuttered, removing one of my hands from my mouth to point at Elliot.

Jill and Ashley followed my finger, and Jill screamed while Ashley jumped.

"W-Who is t-that?" Ashley asked pointing to Elliot with me.

"I'm g-guessing it's Elliot," Jill said, acknowledging what I had said a few seconds earlier.

"Elliot?" Ashley asked, turning from the unconscious body and facing me. Suddenly, a look of realization crossed her face. "Elliot! Elliot Henry McPhearson! He was on the list you gave me!"

I nodded.

"B-But what is he d-doing _here_?" Jill asked, looking around the jungle.

I didn't answer. Instead, I slowly drifted over to him, and knelt down.

"Elliot..." I whispered, gently shaking him. "Elliot... can you hear me? Wake up, Elliot... wake up..."

He didn't move. I stopped shaking him and sighed. What would make Elliot wake up...? I thought for a minute.

"Natalie!" I cried out of the blue. "Get away from Elliot with that _permanent_ marker!"

Elliot's eyes snapped open, and his head shot up.

"Elliot!" I screamed, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"C-Chelsea...?" Elliot said quietly, staring at me in shock. "W-What are you doing here?"

I smiled at him, and hugged him tighter. "I'm so glad we found you!" I whispered to him.

Elliot blinked at me, and shook his head.

I pulled away from him and smiled wider. "What were you doing in the jungle?" I asked.

Elliot sat up, and shook his head again.

"The storm," he said. "It was late spring or early summer... I-I forget... Anyways, a _huge_ storm rolled in and a few hours later a rescue boat came to the island and evacuated us. I was about to get on the boat with everybody else when I remembered Shea and Wada were still here, so I rushed into the jungle to find them but before I could get to their house, a branch flew off and hit me in the head. I was knocked unconscious, and drifted in and out of the real world for days."

"So you're the only one left?" I asked. "Everyone else they're... gone?"

Elliot nodded solemnly.

"Do you know where they went?" Ashley asked, kneeling down beside me.

"No," Elliot said. "Not really. The rescue team just said that they were moving us to some islands miles away from here, where it would be safer."

Ashley bit her lip, and stood back up. "Well that gives us _something_ of a start." She said.

"Do you know if they made it?" I asked.

Elliot shook his head. "I haven't seen any of them since the night of the storm." He said.

I sighed, remembering what I had seen when I went back to the island to find the Witch Princess.

"Did anything seem... different about this storm?" I asked.

Elliot thought for a bit, and then said, "It was definitely stronger than other storms... and the storms clouds seemed to be swirling around the island."

"Sort of like the storm was originating from the island?" Jill asked.

"It sounds like it," Ashley said. "I flew into the eye of a hurricane once, and it was a bunch of clouds swirling around."

I narrowed my eyes. "But I thought storms originated from the sky or something, not islands." I said.

"They do..." Ashley said, furrowing her eyebrows.

"This is weird," Jill said, letting out a frustrated sigh.

Everyone was quiet.

"Someone made that storm," I suddenly blurted out.

"What?" Ashley asked, eyeing me like I was crazy. "That's impossible!"

"No," I shook my head. "It's possible. This island was evacuated before because of a storm."

"Yeah, so?" Ashley said. "It could just be sitting in a bad place. You know, kind of like Tornado Alley."

"But then why would there be clouds swirling around?" I said. "Something's not right about this island."

* * *

Two hours later, we were back on the boat. Ashley was going back to the city, while Jill, Elliot, and I were going back to Forget-Me-Not Valley.

I had totally forgotten about asking Elliot about everyone else until we were on the boat.

"So," I said, sitting beside him. "Did anything huge happen while we were gone?"

"No," Elliot shook his head. "Julia hadn't had her baby when the storm came."

"What about everyone else?"

"Mirabelle nearly had a nervous breakdown when she found you, Vaughn, and Jonathon had run off. And then she nearly murdered Regis." Elliot said. "She read every article and watched every News cast about you guys."

"Regis proclaimed us innocent," I explained when he had finished. "Well, except Jonathon, who really was guilty..."

"How did you find out?" he asked.

"It was in a newspaper article Vaughn and Jonathon got from the city." I said. "We were hiding in Zephyr Town when it happened."

"Did it say anything about where everyone went?"

I shook my head.

Everyone was quiet for the last half hour of the ride. Forget-Me-Not Valley soon loomed into view, and I smiled. The ship docked, and we all scrambled off. Jill dragged Elliot and I to her farm, where Vaughn was brushing her cow, Hilda.

"Vaughn!" I called out, waving.

He turned around, and waved back at me. When he saw Elliot standing by Jill, his eyes got wide and it looked like he were about to faint.

**Me: :D Vaughn's baaaaaaaaack! *sqeaul* So, uh, yeah... review and stuff...**


	9. List of Defaults

**Wooooo! Update, update, update! :D I've been terrible at updating lately... Especially on ... I haven't updated the one story I have on there since like February... ^^'**

List of Defaults

"So let me get this straight,"

I sighed. Vaughn, Jill, Elliot, and I were all crowded into her small one-room house. It was pretty squished and uncomfortable, and I was pretty sure Elliot was about to have a claustrophobic breakdown any minute.

We had told Vaughn what we had found, and what had happened to Elliot. He was just replaying it out loud to make sure he understood.

"Elliot went into the jungle to look for Wada and Shea," he continued. "But got hit with a branch, and fell unconscious."

"Yep," I said, nodding.

Vaughn got this funny look on his face, and I could tell he was trying to hold back laughter. Why? Probably because Elliot got knocked out by a tree...

I glared at him, and he looked at his hands like a little kid that had been caught eating candy before supper.

"So," Jill said as I hopped down from the kitchen counter I was sitting on. "Who's hungry? I bought the ingredients to make a red-hot pie from Van before we left."

"Red-hot pie?" Elliot asked, looking at Jill as if she had three heads.

I smiled. Eventually, you get used to Forget-Me-Not Valley and it's odd dishes.

"Yeah," Jill said. "It's basically a pie with fruit from hybrid tree number 6, eggs, and butter."

Elliot continued looking at her like she was half-insane.

"It's really good!" Jill insisted. "Just try it! Oh, and I'm also making tataro stir-fry, which is tataro, and hybrid 23 or 24. I'm using 23 because I like it better."

"What's ta...tatro?" Elliot asked, struggling with the pronunciation.

"Ta_tar_o," Jill snapped. "It's some sort of vegetable thing..."

She waved away the subject, and started cooking.

I walked over to Vaughn and sat down beside him.

"So," I said. "How were things while we were gone?"

"Ok," Vaughn replied. "Quiet, though. And boring."

I smiled and grabbed his hand. "We'll take you with us next time," I promised.

Elliot suddenly sat up and let out a deep sigh. "I'm going outside..." he murmured. "I'm claustrophobic and this small house is _freaking me out_!"

He hurried out of the house, gladly shutting the door behind him.

I turned to Vaughn. "Isn't he lactose intolerant?" I asked.

"Yeah, so?" Vaughn asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"_And_ he's claustrophobic," I pointed out.

"And...?" Vaughn said, as if asking me to get on with it.

"Do you think he's gluten intolerant? Or a vegetarian?" I asked. "Because then he'd only be able to eat vegetables and fruit in wide places."

Vaughn didn't say anything for a while. "Why are you talking about this?" he eventually asked.

"I don't know," I shrugged, looking at my hand and Vaughn's hand together. "Just wondering..."

When I looked back up, Vaughn was smiling at me. Well, it wasn't a _real_ smile because I think that's physically _and_ mentally impossible for him; it was more of a curve of the lip. I was about to ask him what he was smiling at when he leaned down and kissed me.

Surprised, I just sat there for a minute with my eyes wide open. I then relaxed and started kissing him back. Vaughn's arms wrapped around my waist, and I wrapped mine around his waist.

"Whoa, ok!"

Vaughn and I pulled apart and turned to see Jill staring at us wide eyed.

"Didn't need to see that..." she said, shaking her head.

I laughed, while Vaughn turned a deep red.

"I just wanted to know if any of you knew how to pre-heat an oven, and I see you to making out!" Jill said.

"You don't know how to pre-heat an oven?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my sister. "You're nineteen!"

"So?" Jill snapped. "You know I've never been good at cooking!"

"Ok, ok..." I muttered, getting up. "No need to be all cranky."

Jill stuck her tongue out at me, and I went over to start pre-heating her oven. She then started making the red-hot pie, by mixing the eggs and butter with wheat for the dough, and then putting it in a pie pan and filling it with hybrid fruit #6.

While the pie was in the oven, Jill made the tataro stir-fry. She put chopped up tataro and hybrid 23 in a frying pan and put it on the stove, occasionally stirring it with a wooden spoon.

"You seem good at cooking," I observed watching my sister make supper.

"I'm just not good with _appliances_," Jill said, opening the oven door and checking on the red-hot pie. It seemed to be done, so Jill put on some oven mitts and took it out, setting it on the window sill to cool down.

She continued to stir the tataro stir-fry for a few more minutes before asking me to turn off the stove and taking it off, setting it by the red-hot pie to cool down.

I went over to the door and opened it, peering out. There was no one out there.

"Hey," I said turning back towards Vaughn and Jill. "Where's Elliot?"

We all looked at each other, confused, until a scream erupted outside. We all dashed out to where the scream had come from, and found Elliot cowering behind Takakura's house.

"Elliot!" I cried, racing towards you. "What's wrong?"

Shaking, Elliot pointed to the far end of Jill's pasture. Jill, Vaughn, and I all looked down there to see Murrey, the local homeless man of Forget-Me-Not Valley, wandering around, whistling.

"You're scared of _Murrey_?" Jill asked, staring at Elliot like he was crazy.

"Y-Yes..." Elliot stuttered, nodding weakly.

"Hobophobia..." I said, shaking my head. "I'll add that to the list of defaults."

**Please review!**


	10. Pinkcat Flowers

**Yayyy updates! I've been working on this chapter for hours, considering I've been stuck in a car FOREVER! But now I'm at a hotel, and moving into my new house soon, so YAY! I've also been working on Hoping for Hope :3**

Pinkcat Flowers

After Elliot's horrific incident of terror, we all went inside and had supper. Elliot was jumpy during the whole meal, and kept glancing around the room.

"Elliot," Jill said half-way through the meal. "Calm. Down." She slowly and gently put her hand on top of his.

Elliot took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

"Good," Jill said, patting his hand cautiously.

Elliot took another deep breath, and Vaughn and I watched him. It was kind of weird, actually...

"Don't worry, Elliot," I reassured him. "Murrey is nice. He doesn't hurt people."

The pink-haired man nodded. "I'm okay now," he said.

"All right," Jill said, standing up. She started clearing away everyone's plates and putting them in the kitchen sink.

Vaughn, Elliot, and I sat in silence at the table. I wanted to ask him more questions of the island and its missing villagers, but I knew I had already gotten as much information as I could out of him.

"So, what do we do now?" Elliot asked after a few minutes.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"About Julia, Natalie, my mom, and all the others." He said.

"Well, Jill and I got a search and rescue team looking for them," I said. "They're searching the oceans around the island to make sure the boat they were on didn't crash, and are checking all the nearby islands."

"Oh," Elliot nodded. "Do you think we should look too?"

I looked at Vaughn, then at Jill, who was washing the dishes and listening to our conversation.

"I don't know," I answered.

"But where would we look?" Jill asked, scrubbing a plate with a wet sponge.

I shrugged. "We could look anywhere," I said.

"But that'd take forever," Jill observed. "Maybe we should just let the search and rescue team do their job for a while."

I nodded. "You're right Jill," I said. "For now it's just best for them to do their job."

Elliot sighed, and got up. "I'm going outside again..." he muttered as he walked out the door. Looking at Jill, I could tell she was fighting the urge to say, "Look out for Murrey!"

Once Jill finished washing the dishes, she sat down at the table with Vaughn and me. I realized then that he had been pretty quiet. Well, quiet for him anyways.

"Hey," I nudged him gently in the arm. "You all right? You haven't said a word during the whole meal."

Vaughn sighed lightly, and leaned back in his chair. "I don't know..." he mumbled, crossing his arms. "Just... thinking, I guess."

"About what?" I asked, leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Julia... and Mirabelle... and everyone else..." Vaughn answered, slowly, as if thinking deeply about each word he said.

"Don't worry," I said, kissing his cheek. "We'll find them."

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, Jill brought up a topic I hadn't thought about since we found the island deserted:

Jonathon.

"So, do you know how Jonathon's doing, Vaughn?" she asked.

Vaughn and I glanced at each other, and Elliot stared quizzically at all three of us.

"Who's... Jonathon?" he asked.

Vaughn sighed, and shook his head. "Haven't heard anything or seen him since you did," he answered.

"Who's Jonathon?" Elliot asked again, seemingly a little annoyed at being ignored.

"Huh," Jill said, nodding. "You think Regis is still after him?"

Vaughn nodded.

"Jonathon is Vaughn's younger brother," I said to Elliot, noticing how neither Jill or Vaughn were answering him. "You know... Skye."

"But... why are you calling him Jonathon?" Elliot asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's his real name," I explained. "He just went by the name Skye."

"Oh," Elliot said quietly, nodding.

No one spoke after that. We all just stared off into space or swirled the food around our plates with our forks.

When the phone rang suddenly, we all jumped. After a second or so of shock, Jill got up and went to answer it.

"Hello?" she asked. "Oh, hey Ashley!"

I turned to look at her when she said "Ashley".

"Who's Ashley?" Vaughn whispered to me.

"She's the police officer in charge of the search and rescue," I said.

Vaughn nodded, and turned to face Jill too.

"So you know they didn't sink around the island?" Jill said. "Ok. Are you checking the islands around Sunny Island now? Ok. How about the water? Not yet? Oh, after you check the islands. Ok, bye Ashley. Thanks for calling."

After she hung up, Jill walked back to the table and sat down.

"They didn't find anything around the island," she said. "Now their checking the islands around it. After they're finished that, they'll check the water there."

"And after that?" I asked, watching my little sister intently.

Jill shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Ashley didn't say anything about it. But who knows? Maybe they'll be on one of the islands."

"I hope so," I said, standing up and starting to collect the plates. I put them in the sink, the decided to go for a walk to the Goddess Pond.

I was sitting in front of the pond watching the water when I saw Vaughn walking up the path towards me. Waving to him, I smiled slightly. He smiled back at me with a small smile, and was soon sitting behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist.

I rested my head against his shoulder and sighed.

"This pond is a lot like the one back on Sunny Island," I said. "But there's more flowers here."

Vaughn chuckled a bit, and kissed my cheek. He then reached out and grabbed a pinkcat that was growing by the pond. He twirled it around, and while I watched it, I remembered the time after I had thought Vaughn died when his ship crashed.

_I wandered over to the pond, and sat down cross-legged in front of it. I picked up a little pinkcat flower and began twirling it. Around, and around, and around..._

_I stopped twirling it, and stared at it. I lifted my hand, and tossed it into the pond. It floated there for a minute, and then green and blue sparkles appeared over the flower._

_I slowly stood up. The sparkles wound all around until they were shaped like a funnel. Suddenly, a woman appeared where the sparkles had been. She had long green hair woven into a braid, and green eyes. She was wearing a lovely light blue outfit, and gold wristbands._

_"Hello, Chelsea," she said in a musical, echoing voice._

_"Whoa," I stumbled backwards, and fell into the dirt._

_"I am the Harvest Goddess," she said. "Thank you for your offering."_

_"The... T-The... The Harvest Goddess!" I stuttered. She nodded._

_Suddenly, a bell chimed out of nowhere. I looked around, but there wasn't one._

_"I must be going now," she said. "Good-bye, Chelsea..."_

I gently shook my head to get rid of the memory. Thinking of the island now and what happened that day was just too much right now… Later. I'll think of them later.

"You ok?" Vaughn asked, wrapping my hands in his.

"Y-Yeah," I said, closing my eyes.

Vaughn looked at me a bit skeptically, but instead put his arms around my waist again. We sat there like that, not talking; just watching the water.

**I have nothing more to say, so Please review!**


	11. Wait, Wait, and Wait Some More

**I was stuck in my new house ALL DAY with no furniture and no Internet, so I managed to get two chapters done! :D Here's the first, and I'll put up the next one right after this.**

Wait, Wait, and Wait Some More

We waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For what? What did we wait for? What did we sit around for hours, not talking for?

Answers, I guess. Answers to where everyone went; if they're alive or not.

All day. All day we just sat around, hardly saying a word. We didn't know what else to do. We had nothing else to do but wait. Ashley didn't call. We didn't call her.

Jill sat on her bed, staring at the floor, every now and then biting her nails. Elliot sat down at the table, and sometimes got up and paced around the small one-room house, or went outside. I sat on the kitchen counter, and Vaughn sat right beneath me.

By the second day of doing nothing but wait, I had had enough.

"I can't take it anymore!" I cried. Everyone snapped their attention to me and stared as if I had just broken some huge law that made it illegal to speak.

"I can't!" I yelled again, getting down from the counter. "All we've been doing is sitting and waiting! It's driving me crazy!"

Jill stood up. "Well what else can we do?" she asked.

"Something!" I said, spreading my arms wide. "Go to the city; go to the islands they're searching! Let's just do _something_! No one's going to be found faster with us just sitting here!"

Jill looked at Elliot, then at Vaughn.

"She's right," she said, sighing. "We have to do something."

"Then let's go down to the islands," Elliot suggested.

I looked at Jill and Vaughn.

"Should we?" I asked.

Vaughn shrugged. "I guess…" he mumbled.

"Might as well," Jill said, smiling. "It'll be better than sitting around doing nothing!"

"Then it's settled," I announced. "How about we leave tomorrow at 11 am?"

* * *

We left Jill's house with our suitcases at 10:54 am. Before we had left Sunny Island, Elliot managed to get a hold of some of his old clothes from the workers that had survived the storm. He then borrowed one of Jill's suitcases.

Our parade worked its way to the docks. Gustafa was sitting on the beach playing his little guitar-thingy. A lute, I think?

The ferry to the city arrived at 11:10, and left at 11:30, so I set my suitcase down on the dock and sat on it. Jill did the same, but Elliot and Vaughn stayed standing.

As we waited for the ferry (ugh, more waiting…), I stared at the deep blue waves in the ocean that rolled to the shore and created foam that only lasted for a few seconds. After a few minutes this got boring, so I tried to make conversation with everyone.

"What do you think the islands are like?" I asked.

"Hmm…?" Jill looked down from the sky and looked at me with dazed eyes.

"The islands," I repeated. "The ones by Sunny Island."

"Oh…" my little sister said, nodding. "I dunno…" she muttered.

"Stop mumbling," I scolded. "No one can understand you!"

"You sound just like mom…" Jill said quietly, twiddling her fingers. "She was always mad at me for mumbling…"

"You only mumble when you're thinking," I pointed out. "So it didn't happen too often." I smiled teasingly.

Jill squinted at me. "I miss them…" she said suddenly, turning away from me and back to the sky.

I watched her for a while. "I do too," I said. "They didn't deserve to die."

"No one deserves to die," Jill whispered. She looked at me, and I saw that there were tears in her eyes.

"Don't cry, Jilly," I said. It always seemed to calm my sister down when people called her Jilly. Probably because that's what our grandfather calls her.

Jill nodded, and wiped at the tears.

* * *

When we arrived in the city at 2 pm, Vaughn checked to see when the next boat to Sunny Island arrived.

"It doesn't come until tomorrow morning," he said, returning to our little group.

"That means we'll have to spend the night in the city," Jill said. "I don't have the money for that; I only brought enough for four boat tickets."

"I didn't bring any money," Elliot said.

"Neither did I," I said, rummaging through my stuff and not even finding a cent.

We all stood around, thinking about what to do next.

"We could go back to the Valley," Elliot suggested.

"The boat doesn't leave to go back until tomorrow," Vaughn said.

"Oh…"

We thought some more. Eventually we found a bench and all of us sat down.

"What now?" Jill asked after about half an hour. "We can't spend the night in the streets like hoboes!"

Elliot's eyes widened a bit at the mention of homeless people.

"It's ok, Elliot," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure something out."

After around ten more minutes of thinking, I remembered something.

"Vaughn!" I cried suddenly. "Remember when you worked in the city for most of the week?"

"Yeah," Vaughn said. "Then I got fired."

"What happened to the apartment you used to stay in when you came here?" I asked.

"I don't know," Vaughn shrugged. "It's been over two years since I last stayed in it or payed the rent. They probably kicked me out."

"Do you have a key?"

"No, but I used to keep a spare one in the plant by the door."

"Then let's go!" I stood up and grabbed my suitcase. "We could at least _try_ to get into the place!"

"I guess…" Vaughn muttered, getting up as well. Elliot and Jill did the same.

"Show us the way!" I cried, pointing forward like in those cheesy medieval movies.

Vaughn raised an eyebrow at me, but shrugged and started leading us through the streets of the city.

**Please review!**


	12. Room 806

**Here's the second chapter I wrote today :) This one gets somewhat romantic at the end :3**

**Disclaimer: I've been forgetting to do the disclaimer... What. Is. Wrong. With. Me! Anyways, I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Room 806

Vaughn's old apartment was right in the middle of down-town in a huge building that was at least twenty floors high. When we walked in, Vaughn led us straight to the elevators.

Once we were inside the elevator, he began studying the twenty-two buttons.

"It's on floor eight," Vaughn said, pressing the button with the number 8 above it. A little red light appeared in the middle of the button.

The elevator started moving up, and each time it passed a floor, a bell chimed once. When it reached floor eight, the bell rang twice and the doors opened. We all stepped into the hallway, and Vaughn looked down each way.

"I think it was this way," he pointed to the left.

"You _think_?" Jill questioned. "You better _know_! I don't want to be led on some wild goose chase through an apartment building!"

Vaughn glared at her, and started walking to the left. I shrugged at Jill, and followed him. Elliot did the same, and Jill eventually did too.

"Do you remember which number it was?" I asked Vaughn.

"Something like 806 or 807…" he mumbled, studying the numbers nailed to the doors.

We continued walking, past apartments 800, 801, 802, 803, 804…

When we got to 806, Vaughn stopped. He studied the door for a moment, and then studied the potted plant beside it. He then started digging through the dirt in the plant, until he uncovered a key chain.

"Is that it?" I asked.

Vaughn didn't answer; instead he grabbed the key chain and pulled. A small silver key covered in specks of dirt popped out.

"So you _were_ going the right way?" Jill said.

Vaughn nodded, and cleaned off the key. He stuck it in the keyhole, and turned. A _click_ emitted from the door, and Vaughn grabbed the handle and turned it. The door squeaked open, pushing something along the floor.

Vaughn stepped into his old apartment, and the rest of us followed. Looking around, it seemed like the place hadn't been touched in two years, which it probably hadn't.

Once everyone was inside, I checked behind the door and saw a pile of mail, most likely bills that had yet to be paid. Leaving the wad of letters there, I started walking around the dusty apartment.

When you walked inside, to you left was a small shoe closet, and to your right was an open doorway that led into the skinny kitchen. If you kept going straight, there was another door on the left which led into a laundry room. Even further on, there was a bathroom to the left, and in front of you was a room with two beds. If you turned right, you'd pass the master bedroom, and further on was a towel closet, and then the living room. There was a TV, a small coffee table, a couch, a desk, and an armchair. There was also a glass door which led out onto a small deck that overlooked the city. Beside the living room was a small table with four chairs encircling it, and then another doorway into the kitchen.

It wasn't very big, and there was no power since the electricity had been shut off due to unpaid bills, but four people could live in it for one night.

As expected, there was no edible food in the fridge or cupboards, and everything was filthy. Jill and I immediately set to work getting out all the cleaning supplied and cleaning the apartment.

It didn't take too long, considering the size of it, but the rags were brown with dirt and the water was nearly black when we were finished. The blankets are the bed weren't _too_ dirty since no one's used them over two years, so we skipped washing those.

"So," I said after we were all sitting in the living room. "Who's sleeping where?"

"I'm not sharing a room with him," Jill said, right off the bat, pointing to Elliot. "No way!"

"Well then it's your lucky day," Vaughn said. "The couch folds out into a bed."

"Then have fun out here, Elliot!" Jill said, nodding, and taking her suitcase into the double bedroom.

Elliot shrugged, and went to retrieve his suitcase from the shoe closet.

Vaughn and I ended up sharing the bed in the master bedroom, because Jill said she had a chance to sleep alone again and was going to take it, which I didn't really mind…

That night I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth when Vaughn leaned in to grab his toothbrush. It scared the heck out of me because I was watching the water rush from the tap, and when his hand moved in front of my face I jumped ten feet in the air and screamed.

Vaughn stared at me for a minute with his eyebrows raised, then wet his toothbrush and put toothpaste on it. As he left the bathroom I heard him mutter, "Crazy…" under his breath.

I glared after him and called, "I am not crazy!"

"Are too,"

I narrowed my eyes at the bedroom where he had disappeared, and rinsed out my mouth.

When I left the bathroom I poked my head into Jill's room and found her already sound asleep, sprawled out on one of the beds.

"Good night," I said softly to her.

"Mmm…" Jill murmured, turning over and burying her face in a pillow.

I smiled lightly, and closed the door. Elliot was already asleep too; I could hear him snoring in the living room. When I stepped into the master bedroom, I didn't see Vaughn anywhere. Guessing he had gone back to the bathroom, I shrugged it off and climbed into bed.

I must have had my eyes closed for two minutes before the door creaked open. Opening my eyes, I saw Vaughn walking into the bedroom. I closed my eyes again, and felt him crawling into bed beside me.

Turning around, I opened my eyes again and saw his light violet eyes staring at me. I smiled and grabbed his hand under the covers.

"I can't wait to find them," I whispered.

Whenever we said "them" or "they", everyone knew we were talking about the missing islanders now. It had become part of our regular conversations.

"I know," Vaughn whispered back, moving a strand of hair from my face.

"When we find them, the first thing I'll do is get the Witch Princess to turn back time," I sighed. "Back to the night Jonathon stole the jewels from Regis, but before he left."

Vaughn nodded.

"Do you think if the Witch Princess _can_ turn back time, that we'll remember what happened? Because it would suck if she _did_ turn back time but none of us remembered and we ended up doing this over, and over, and over…"

"I'm sure we'll remember," Vaughn said, smirking.

"When the Witch Princess _does_ turn back time, I'm going to take Julia shopping in the city," I said softly, tracing the design of the sheets.

"Hmm," Vaughn muttered, closing his eyes.

I smiled at him again, and kissed his forehead.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," I said.

Vaughn smiled slightly, and we fell asleep.

**Me: Hmm... I just realized I've been forgetting to do this for the past chapters as well ^^; Well, here I am! I'll be on and updating A LOT until September, because I'm moving in on Monday, and I won't have school again until September :D Yayyy!**


	13. The Baby Boutique

**Yay for the third update in one day! I had most of this chapter finished, anways :D Oh, and for those who don't know what Tim Horton's is, it's an AWESOME cafe :P**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, any of its characters, Tim Horton's, or Starbucks.**

The Baby Boutique

The boat to Sunny Island left at 9 am, so if we hurried we could be out of the apartment by 7 and have time to grab a quick breakfast.

"Tim Horton's!" Jill said. "Let's get breakfast at Tim Horton's!"

"It's on the other side of the city," Vaughn said, closing his suitcase. "If we want to make it to the docks in time, we'll have to go somewhere else."

"Aww…" Jill pouted. "Dammit..."

I smirked teasingly at my sister. Ever since we were little she's been obsessed with Tim Horton's. I always used to laugh at her when we were on road trips and passed a sign for Tim Horton's. She would completely freak out and beg to go there for a doughnut.

We left the apartment at 7:03 am. Vaughn decided to just leave the apartment alone until the building did something with it.

"That might be a while," I pointed out as we waited for the elevator. "They have done anything with it in two years…"

Vaughn shrugged, and the elevator arrived. We clambered in and Jill pressed the button with an L above it for lobby.

When the doors opened again, we all stepped out and hurried through the lobby out onto the streets.

"So where should we go for breakfast?" I asked. "It's only 7:07, and the boat doesn't get here until 9."

"There's a Starbucks near the docks," Vaughn said. "I went there all the time before I got on the boat."

Jill made a face, and stuck her tongue out.

"Come on, Jill," I muttered, grabbing my sister's elbow and dragging her along the sidewalk following Vaughn and Elliot.

Once we had almost reached the Starbucks, Jill began trying to free her elbow.

"Ok, Chelsea, ok!" she said angrily, squirming her arm around. "You can let go now!"

I narrowed my eyes at her, but let go.

"_Thank you_," Jill snapped, and went into the Starbucks behind Elliot and Vaughn, and I went in behind her.

For breakfast I got a coffee and muffin, Vaughn got coffee, Elliot got some raisin bread thingy, and Jill just got a cup of whipped cream.

"Jill?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the small cup my sister held full to the brim with whipped cream. "That's what you're having for _breakfast_?"

"Yeah," Jill said through a mouthful of cream. "So?"

"It's not very healthy," I said, eyeing the cup. "That stuff is like cream on steroids."

Jill shrugged, and stuck another shovelful in her mouth.

* * *

By 7:45 everyone was finished their "breakfast". We still had about an hour until the boat got here, so Jill and I decided to do a little shopping.

As we walked down the streets we passed a little store called The Baby Boutique.

"Aww," I cooed, gazing at the cute little boots and dresses and pyjamas that were displayed in the window. "Do you know if Julia's having a boy or a girl?" I asked Elliot, turning towards him.

"Dr. Trent said he thinks it'll be a girl," he said, shrugging slightly.

I smiled, and admired the cutest little pink dress with a plaid skirt and embroidered butterflies on it. "It won't matter anyways," I said, looking at the matching hat and thinking of the Witch Princess. "Come on, Jill, let's go inside!"

Grabbing her hand, I pulled Jill into the store. Vaughn and Elliot followed us in slowly.

The store walls were covered in racks and shelves of baby clothes, and there were tables in the middle full of shoes and hats. The left side was for boy clothes, and right was for girls.

I smiled wider and went over to the girls' clothes to look at more dresses. There was a sweet like blue dress with pink lollipops stitched around the bottom hem, and another pale yellow one with sun shaped pockets on the front.

"These are so adorable!" I chimed, looking at them. "When I have kids, I'm definitely coming here!"

As Jill and I gushed over the baby clothes, Vaughn and Elliot stood by the door, boredly.

The old lady who stood behind the counter kept glancing at them and smirking.

"Are they your girlfriends?" she eventually asked, grinning.

Elliot's face turned crimson red, and his eyes grew wide.

"N-No, no, no," he said repetitively, shaking his head furiously. "M-My girlfriend's not here..."

"Ah," the old lady muttered, nodding. "And what about you, cowboy?"

Vaughn raised an eyebrow at her, and looking over I saw his face turning a bit red. I smiled and giggled a little, then turned back to the dresses.

"Oh, is _she_ your girlfriend? The giggly one?" I heard the lady ask. "Or is she your _wife_?"

"No," Vaughn said. "She's my girlfriend."

Turning around I saw the old lady grinning teasingly.

"You know," the old lady said. "You look a _lot_ like my niece's husband, cowboy. He had silver hair and eyes just like you."

"Hmm..." I heard Vaughn murmur.

"But she's dead now... So is her husband. And I think their sons are dead too..." she said, thinking. "Or was it just one...? I never talked to her much. She always lived far away, and I eventually lost contact with everyone else..."

"Grandma,"

I looked towards the voice, and nearly had a heart attack.

Standing right beside the old lady was a tall, slender young girl around Jill's age with shoulder-length silver hair and bright purple eyes.

"Holy shit..." I whispered, staring at the girl.

"Are you annoying the customers again?" the girl asked.

The old lady chuckled. "No, no..." she said. "I was just talking how much that man looked like Bella's husband! He looks likes you too, Paige!"

Vaughn's face turned white at the mention of his mother's name.

"Your great-niece Bella?" the girl, Paige, asked. "He does look a lot like Oliver..."

At the mention of his father's name, Vaughn looked like he was about to throw up. I quickly raced to his side and grabbed his arm.

"He ok?" the old lady asked, pointing to Vaughn.

"Yeah," I said. "He'll be... fine."

"Maybe he is Bella's kid..." Paige whispered to the old lady.

"What?" the lady looked at her granddaughter. "No; I heard all Bella's kids died in that car crash."

"Maybe he survived," Paige said. "And wasn't their last name Anderson? Because I saw a thing in the news about this guy Vaughn Anderson and his brother Jonathon Anderson."

"Hmm..." the lady muttered. "Hey, cowboy!" she called to us. "Is your name Vaughn or Jonathon?"

"Vaughn," I answered for him. Vaughn was staring at the floor, his face still ghostly pale.

"And were your parents named Bella and Oliver?"

Vaughn nodded weakly, and I gripped his arm tighter.

"I'm pretty sure he's their son," Paige said to her grandmother. "There's like a 0.1% chance he isn't. He looks like them, has the same name, his parents have the same name as his..."

I remember someone saying something similar about Jonathon... Could it have only been that winter? It seems like it was years ago...

"I'm leaving..." Vaughn whispered, starting towards the door. I quickly followed him to help, and Elliot left after us.

"Umm... Thanks!" I heard Jill say to the old lady and Paige before leaving too.

I might not be going back to The Baby Boutique for a while.

**Me: Ooooooh! I just LOVE drama! I like that name... The Baby Boutique. Maybe one day I'll open a baby store and call it that :D **


	14. Family

**I only managed to get one chapter done today ^^' Ah, well, at least I'm updating daily again!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Family

"Are you ok, Vaughn?" I asked as we all hurried down the street away from The Baby Boutique.

Vaughn just grunted, and started walking faster. I looked back at Elliot and Jill, and tried to catch up to him.

Once I caught up to him, we all walked in silence, not knowing what to say.

"What are you so upset about?" Jill asked, appearing beside us.

"When my parents died, I was told I had no other family except Mirabelle and Julia," Vaughn snapped. "Then my brother shows up alive, and now them? I'm wondering now if my parents are even dead!"

"Vaughn," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "She said she lost contact with like everyone in her family. It's no surprise no one told you about her."

"But what about her granddaughter, Paige or whatever?" Vaughn asked. "She couldn't have been older than Jill! How'd she end up with that old lady?"

"She must be her great-granddaughter," Elliot pointed out. "Because if she was your mother's great-aunt, that means she would have to be Vaughn's great-grandmother's sister, or his great-great-aunt, if that word exists."

"So, I went from having two parents, a brother, an aunt, and a cousin, to having just an aunt and a cousin, to having an aunt, a cousin, and a brother, and now I have might have an aunt and a cousin, a brother, a great-great-aunt, and another cousin." Vaughn said, sitting down on a bench.

"Wow," Jill said, shaking her head. "Your family is _screwed up_!"

I shot Jill a death glare, and sat down beside Vaughn.

"Don't worry," I told him, grabbing his hand. "We'll sort everything out later. But right now, it's 11:26, and the boat leaves in exactly four minutes."

"Holy crap!" Jill cried. "You're right! Come on, everybody, up, up, up! Let's go, let's go!"

I let Jill grab my hand and yank me up. She then did the same to Vaughn, and shoved our suitcases at us. We both took them by the handle, and Jill started pulling us and Elliot down the street.

"What's up with your sister?" Elliot asked me quietly while she threw money for four tickets at the man in front of the boat.

"She doesn't like to miss things," I answered as we all climbed on the boat.

As soon as we were all safely on board, the sailors pulled away the boarding plank and the ship started moving.

"We made it," Jill said with an exasperated sigh. "I didn't think we would!"

"With you with us, I knew we would," I teased, poking gently at my sister.

Jill glared at me for a second, then went and sat down, and I went and sat down beside her.

"How long is the trip to Sunny Island?" I asked. I had taken this trip numerous times, but could never remember how long it took.

"About three or four hours," Vaughn answered. "Depends on how good the weather is and how fast the ship is going."

"Oh," I nodded. The length always seemed to change to me.

Jill and I sat around talking for a good hour and a half, while Elliot and Vaughn just sat quietly on either side of us. Elliot kept glancing at the ocean and the horizon, as if wishing for an island to miraculously appear with Julia on it.

Well, I don't blame him. After all, she is pregnant with his child. Sometimes I wonder how that happened... I mean Elliot doesn't seem like the type of person to do something like that. And neither is Julia. I always thought that Lanna would be more likely to get pregnant with _Pierre_ than Julia with Elliot.

A picture of Lanna and Pierre popped into my head... And you _do not_ want o know what they were doing.

I shook my head and closed my eyes tight to try and get rid of it, but it didn't go away. Oh dear, God! I shook my head again, and closed my eyes even tighter.

"You ok, Chels?" Jill asked. I could tell she was staring at me with concern.

"I'm fine," I said, waving my hand at her. The picture finally disappeared, and I opened my eyes and leaned back in my chair. Goddess, that was horrifying.

After a while I started wondering about what Julia and Elliot's baby would look like. Pink hair would be so cute, especially if it was a girl! But if was a boy, well... It might end up like Elliot, or worse...

Would its hair be wavy like Julia's, or straight like Elliot's? Everyone that I know with pink hair has straight hair, so what would it look like if it had wavy hair?

And would the eyes be brown or blue? Pink hair and blue eyes doesn't really match... it'd be much better if the eyes were brown.

The image of a cute little toddler wearing the candy dress I saw in The Baby Boutique popped into my mind. She had wavy pink hair that just reached her shoulders, and wide brown eyes. The toddler was giggling and picking flowers, and then handing them to an older version of Julia.

"Elliot?" I asked as the picture disappeared. "What do you want your baby to look like?"

**Me: Hmm... I wonder what the baby will look like...**


	15. My Farm

**Another chapter for you to read, my friends :) The Internet finally got hooked up in my house. Yay! ^o^ I don't know how much time I'll have tomorrow to write because we're starting to unpack. But I'll try my best to get _something_ done.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

My Farm

The island was being rebuilt fast.

There was already a two-floor house on the site of Mirabelle's old Animal Shop, and a one-floor house where Taro's used to be.

Elliot stood grimly in front of the new house, which had a FOR SALE sign planted in the front lawn. People dressed in fancy high-class clothes were strolling around looking at new buildings.

Jill walked up to Elliot and put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be ok," she whispered to him.

I stood in the middle of the newly re-done path that led up from the beach. If I closed my eyes, I could just barely block out the sound of everyone around me and pretend that everything was ok again; that no one was missing and nothing had happened to the island. That Julia was sitting in front of the Animal Shop with her baby that I had been around to see born. That Eliza and Charlie were playing outside of Gannon's shop. That Ella was outside in her pen grazing, and my crops were prosperous.

But when I opened my eyes, all that disappeared. The high-class people returned, and the strange buildings appeared where the familiar ones should be.

I slowly worked my way over to Vaughn, who wrapped his arms around my shoulder. We started walking towards my farm, past Jill and Elliot, who were still standing in front of Taro's old house, and all the people there looking for "quaint little houses on a gorgeous little island", as I heard one woman say.

Quaint little houses my ass!

I bet not one of the people there knew that the former residents of the island had mysteriously disappeared. Then I'd like to see how they describe this place!

When we reached my farm, I saw that there was a huge security guard in front of the entryway. Seeing him there made me dread to know what I had become of my ranch.

A small crowd of people had assembled in front of the entryway, staring at what was behind it.

I marched right up to the crowd and started pushing my way through like a child trying to be first in line to a toy store.

"Excuse me?" an old woman said, appalled when I shoved her.

I just ignored her, and continued to barge my way through the crowd. Something about the security guard made me uneasy and angry.

When I reached the entryway where the security guard was standing, I quickly peered past him.

My heart sank to my feet when I saw what had happened to my farm.

Taking up most of the field where Ella used to graze and my crops used to grow was a huge mansion. My house, barn, and chicken coop had been torn down. Cherry trees bordered a stone walkway that led from the mansion's front door to the entryway, and a FOR SALE sign in the front lawn had a SOLD sticker plastered across the front.

The house and lawn were beautiful and I'd love to have a house like that, but not on _my farm_.

I clenched my teeth angrily and turned to the security guard.

"Who owns this house?" I asked.

"What?" The guard looked at me with a confused look.

"Who's the bastard that bought that house?" I asked again, pointing to the mansion.

"Some rich guy," the security guard, continuing to look at me with that confused look. "Why do you care?"

"_Because_, that mansion was built on _my farm_!" I snapped.

The guard raised an eyebrow at me. "Yeah right," he chuckled. "This farm was abandoned when they built that mansion."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "_I_ still owned it."

"Well, all I know is that when they started building here, everything was destroyed and no one was living on this island." The security guard said.

"I _own_ that land and you ass-holes can't go ahead and build a God damn _mansion_ on it and _sell it_ without my content!" I cried, glaring angrily at him.

"Hey," the security guard said. He seemed to be getting annoyed. "I didn't build this thing! I was just hired by the guy who bought to protect it! Why don't you go complain to the person who decided to do this?"

"Who the hell is that?" I asked, still angry. "I'm not a mind reader! And, frankly, I'd like to give that bastard a piece of my mind!"

"You can find him in the first building when you enter Easton Village." The guard said, pointing towards East Town. "His name is Regis Regison."

**Me: :O That was unexpected!**


	16. Found

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Easton Village

"What?" I asked softly, all the anger in my quickly draining and being replaced by shock. "R-Regis is behind all this mayhem?"

"Um, yeah," the security guard said.

Slowly, I turned and started making my way through the crowd again. When I got through it, I stumbled my way over to where Vaughn was standing.

"What happened?" he asked, catching me in his arms as I nearly fell to the ground. "Are you ok?"

I shook my head. "N-No," I whispered, looking up at him. "Vaughn, _Regis_ is the person who did all this. He's the one that built all these new houses."

Vaughn stared at me for a while, as if trying to determine whether or not to believe me.

"There's a mansion," I said, the anger slowly returning. "On my farm. The security guard in front told me about Regis..."

"Is he here?" Vaughn asked. "On the island?"

I nodded. "The security guard said he was in the first building when you walked into East Town," I said, clenching and unclenching my hands. "Except he called it something like Easton Village..."

"Come on," Vaughn said, grabbing my hand. He started to drag me towards East Town. We passed the house that was on Mirabelle's old property, and soon came to the small passageway through a cliff that led into East Town.

Except now there was a sign in front of the Town that said "Easton Village" in fancy cursive letters that you could barely make out.

We passed by the sign, shoving upper-class people out of our way. I ignored the shocked and appalled looks they gave us.

When Vaughn and I got to the mansion, it looked a lot like it had before; pale purple walls, black windows... But now it was bigger. Much bigger.

The anger of everything I had been through swelled up inside of me. It was _his_ fault that I had been forced to leave the island. _His_ fault I came to find it abandoned. _His _fault that I have no idea where anyone I know is. _His_ fault a huge mansion now sits on top of my field.

_It's all Regis's fault._

I freed my hand from Vaughn's grip and marched up to the door. Without bothering to knock, I burst through it.

"Regis!" I screamed, all the anger pouring out of me. I marched towards the space where his old office used to be, and, sure enough, Regis was sitting behind a polished oak desk, piles of paper neatly stacked in front of him.

"Ah, Chelsea," Regis said, as if my bursting into his house was totally expected. "I knew you'd be coming here soon. Oh, look, Vaughn's with you!"

Vaughn walked into the office, fire burning in his cold violet eyes.

I didn't respond; instead, I sauntered angrily over to his desk and rested my hands on it.

"Why?" I said in a barely audible whisper.

"Why what?" Regis asked.

"Why the _hell _did you do it?" I asked. "Why did you do all this? Why did you rebuild the island and turn it into some upper-class snob paradise?"

Regis sighed, and got up from behind his desk. "Profit, Chelsea, profit," he said. "These people are willing to play good money for nice, sturdy houses on a beautiful island like this."

"You f*cking bastard!" I snapped, not able to control myself any longer. "You see turning this island into a mansion mart is just some way to make a quick buck! But what about Mirabelle and Julia and Felicia and everyone else? This was _their_ home, too you know?"

"They are happily situated somewhere else, with little replicas of their houses," Regis informed me.

My heart skipped a beat. He knows where they are.

He knows where they are.

He _knows_ where they _are_.

_He knows where they are._

_He. Knows. Where. They. Are._

All the anger drained out of me, and I sank slowly into one of the cushiony arm chairs that sat in front of Regis's desk.

"W-Where are they?" I asked softly, my voice barely audible.

Vaughn's face was incredibly pale, and his eyes were wide.

"The Sunshine Islands," Regis answered, typing something into the laptop sitting in front of him. He turned it towards us, and I saw a map of an archipelago of lush green islands, some of them dotted with houses while the others were inhabited completely by trees and other greenery.

"The Sunshine Islands...?" Vaughn asked, peering closely at the map.

Regis nodded. "Haven't you heard of them before?" he asked.

Vaughn and I shook our heads.

"Ah, I thought you had," he said, sighing. "Well, the Sunshine Islands are, as you can see, a group of islands a lot like this one. But, a few years back they experience a terribly earthquake and, believe it or not, some of the islands sank into the ocean. But just a few seasons ago, they mysteriously resurfaced. And since the archipelago was deserted, that's where everyone was relocated."

I stared at the map. That's where they were. They were on those very islands. I knew where they were. I could go find them. I could go see them.

Shakily, I stood up. "Thank you, Regis," I said, trying to steady myself. "You're still a bastard, but thanks."

Without another word, I turned and left Regis's office, Vaughn following quickly behind me.

This was it. We knew where they are.

**Me: Yayyyyy! *does happy dance* Sorry for the crappy ending, repeativness (?), and profanity in this chapter. ^_^;**


	17. Sisterly Argument

**I have to say, this story is taking a lot of turns I never planned... ^_^; One of them being that Jill tagged along. As some of you might remember, at the end of "Walking in the Devastated Area", I said that there'd be no annoying siblings, and yet... Jill showed up. Another one is Elliot. It wa supposed to be Vaughn and Chelsea, all the way. But we got two hitch-hikers in the deal.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Sisterly Argument

The sky had darkened immensely by that evening.

Jill, Elliot, Vaughn, and I all stood on the beach, waiting for the boat to arrive. Jill and I had put on our coats and were wrapping them tight around our bodies to ward off the cold wind. I was almost positive it was going to rain.

Once the first drop fell on my head, I took my hands out of my pockets and flipped up the hood to my shiny red rain jacket, and buried my hands again. Jill looked questioningly at me, but a raindrop soon fell on her cheek and put up the hood to her dark green jacket.

When it began drizzling Elliot and Vaughn both put on their rain jackets; Elliot a dark blue one and Vaughn a black one (of course).

And so we stood, four people in coats with their hoods up and their hands in their pockets to defend against the strengthening rain, waiting for the boat.

After a few more minutes of waiting it finally arrived, and we all hustled onboard into the dryness and warmth of our cabins.

The trip was going to go late into the night, so we all divided into two groups; two people per cabin.

Jill flat-out refused to share a cabin with Elliot or Vaughn, so Jill and I ended up together and Vaughn went relunctantly to join Elliot.

"You know," I said, turning to face my sister. "Elliot's not _that_ bad. And it's only for a few hours."

Jill ignored me; she instead set to taking off her jacket and hanging it on a door handle to dry.

Once it was hung up, she collapsed cheerfully onto one of the beds.

"I can't believe you actually found them," she said, sighing happily.

Jill had been absolutely ecstatic when Vaughn and I told her and Elliot that we knew where the former residents of Sunny Island were. Elliot had smiled widely, but didn't say anything. I knew he was happy that we found them, but probably a little upset; Julia had definitely had her baby now and he would have missed its birth.

"Oh, I can't wait to see everybody!" Jill cooed, jumping up and down excitedly on the bed.

I nodded, and lay down on my own bed, silently debating whether or not to tell Jill that I was going to force her to get off the boat when it stopped at Forget-Me-Not Valley for half an hour. Deciding that telling her now would just make her throw a fit and lock herself in the bathroom, I decided to wait until we got there.

* * *

To pass the time, Jill and I talked, read, watched TV (though it was all blurry from the worsening storm) and visited Elliot and Vaughn every now and then.

I could tell that being stuck in a room with Elliot was killing Vaughn from the inside out, because he was staring at the blurry TV instead of talking to Elliot.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, a voice boomed across the ship signalling that we had arrived in Forget-Me-Not Valley.

I looked over at Jill, who had been sitting on her bed reading. She looked up at me.

"What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Time to get off," I said in a rather menacing voice.

"But... we're not in—" Realization spread across her face. "No. No, no, no. No! Chelsea!"

She put her book down cautiously and slowly got up. Before she could get too far, I put down what I was doing and pounced on her. Jill let a horrified scream and started trying to break free.

"Jill!" I cried, right in her ear. "You are getting off... Now!"

"Never!" my little sister cried, thrashing under my grasp. "I'm not going back! I'm going with you!"

"No... you're... not!" I gasped, pinning her down by the arms.

Just then the door burst open, and Vaughn and Elliot came running in.

"What's the hell is going on?" Vaughn demanded, tearing Jill and I apart. "What in the Harvest Goddess's name are you two _doing_?"

"She's trying to make me get off and I don't want to!" Jill cried, glaring and pointing at me.

"You have a farm to take care of and it's _your_ responsibility, not your neighbours!" I yelled back, trying to get past Vaughn to attack her again.

"They don't care!" Jill said, sticking her tongue out at me.

"How do you know? You can't read their minds!" I started whacking at her, but couldn't get past Vaughn. Jill did the same, and soon Elliot had to step in to restrain her.

"Stop it, _both of you_!" Vaughn ordered, pushing me back onto my bed. "You're acting like little kids!"

"She started it!" Jill whined, pointing at me again.

"Stop pointing; it's rude!" I said matter-of-factly, crossing my arms at her.

Vaughn glared evilly at me, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Now Jill," Vaughn said, turning towards Jill. "Chelsea's right; you do have a responsibility owning a farm. You can't keep shirking off like this to follow your sister around."

Jill sat on her bed, pouting.

"And Chelsea," Vaughn turned back to me. "You can't _force_ Jill to do something she doesn't want to do."

I opened my mouth to say something, but Vaughn cut me off.

"Even, if you're her older sister. But I do have to agree with you."

Smiling triumphantly, I sat up straighter.

"Jill should go back to her farm," he looked back at me sister.

She sighed. "Fine..." she grumbled. She crawled off the bed and started packing the few possessions she took out.

Once Jill had finished, we all put on our raincoats as it was still pouring and walked with her onto the deck. Vaughn, Elliot, and I couldn't get off the boat because it was about to leave, but we stayed up-top in the pouring rain and Jill ran down the plank to the dock, then ran onto the beach, turning back once to wave. Then, she disappeared into the misty rain.

**Me: The next chapter has been forming in my mind since "Centre of the Storm" ^.^ Prepare for dramaaaaa!**


	18. Third Times a Charm

**Hurray! *does happy dance* Be prepared, my friends... ^.^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Third Times a Charm

Later into the night, the storm had gotten progressively worse. The ship was tossed around mercilessly, and things that weren't bolted to the floor were throw at it. Every now and then something shattered in the distance, though how I could hear above the rain and thunder...

I was glad Jill was safely at her farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley; she had never been on a boat in a storm before and I had a feeling she would have been freaking out.

Around midnight I finally decided to go to bed, though I knew I wouldn't get to sleep and frankly, I didn't want to. This was the third time I've been in a bad storm like this on a boat. The first time, it sunk and I ended up on Sunny Island. The second time, we got turned around and had to go back to the city. And now this.

_Please don't sink, please don't get turned around... Please don't sink, please don't get turned around..._

I thought it over and over again, my eyes shut tightly. A huge clap of thunder sounded, and I covered my face with a pillow.

_Please don't sink, please don't get turned around... _

The other side of the bed sunk in, and my first thought was that the roof had collapsed. Lifting the pillow off my face, I saw Vaughn sitting beside me, not a pile of splintered wood.

Sighing a breath of relief, I looked up at him and saw he was smiling. I was just about to ask him what he was smiling at when a flash of lightening illuminated the room and a huge roar of thunder sounded.

I gave a little squeal and hid in the blankets and pillows, trying to block out the sound of the storm. Vaughn's arms wrapped around me, and I buried my face in his chest.

"Hate storms?" he asked, and I looked at him. I could tell by the look on his face he wasn't being sarcastic; he actually cared.

Nodding, I dug deeper into the blankets. "This is the third time I've been stuck on a boat during a storm," I explained, feeling Vaughn's arms wrap tighter around me. "I hate them... I hate them so much..."

Vaughn didn't say anything; he just kissed the top of my head.

Another boom of thunder echoed in the sky, and the ship shook violently. Something cracked loudly, and Vaughn and I shot upright.

"Was that the ship?" I asked. I practically had to yell, the storm was getting that loud.

Vaughn looked around. "I hope not..." he said.

We got out of bed and hurried over to the door. Vaughn pulled it open, and we stuck our heads outside; many other people were doing the same.

"Do you know what that was?" Elliot asked appearing beside the door. He had hold onto the wall to keep from falling over.

I shook my head. "Hopefully it's not the ship," I stepped out of the room, and the ship gave a huge lurch to the side. Toppling over, I landed against the door to the cabin opposite mine.

There was another loud crack and the ship moaned. The floor suddenly felt like it was tipping. I fell away from the door and Vaughn rushed forward to catch me before I hit the ground. The floor _was_ tipping. The lights above swung as the ship lurched, throw around by the vigorous storm.

Looking around I saw Elliot had disappeared, as had most of the other passengers.

Vaughn suddenly grabbed my hand and started dragging me down the hall, past all the other cabins until we came to the staircase that led up to the deck. We fell at the stairs as the ship gave another crack and moan, and I hit my nose hard on one of them. Rubbing it furiously, Vaughn soon had pulled me up and was leading me up the stairs.

We got onto the deck and were immediately blinded by rain. The wind whipped my hair in every direction and was soon plastered to my face.

"What are we doing up here?" I yelled at Vaughn, but my voice was lost over the sound of the storm.

I could see dark shapes moving around on the deck, and heard snippets of conversations. Some of the shapes were ushering others to the side of the boat, where the disappeared. Vaughn was barely visible except his dark outline, even though he was standing right in front of me and grasping my hand.

As we manoeuvred our way across the deck a fourth loud crack sounded above the storm, and the ship tipped to the left. I clung to Vaughn's arm as we slid down towards the railing, which was moving closer and closer to the oil-black water.

We were sinking.

_Not again, oh dear Goddess, not again..._ I thought, closing my eyes tightly and praying that when I opened them it would have all been just a dream...

But when I opened my eyes again, I was still sliding towards the railing in the middle of a storm, clinging to Vaughn. Water lapped over the rail and the ship started sinking faster, faster, faster...

My bare feet touched the freezing water and I shivered. The boat had broken completely in two, and both sides were now sinking vertically into the ocean. Pieces of wood and lost possessions were scattered around in the water. People were starting to leave the ship and head for blocks of wood or trunks, and jumping onto them and hanging on for dear life.

The water was now reaching my knees, and I looked over at Vaughn. His face was stoic and emotionless, but I could tell he was terrified by the way he was crushing my hand.

"We have to jump," I said, making my voice heard over the still raging storm. "There's a trunk over there." I pointed to a trunk that was bobbing up and down in the water.

Vaughn nodded, and, still holding hands, we pushed off the submerged rail and landed about two feet from the trunk. Fighting against the thrashing waves, we made our way over to the trunk and clambered on, clutching at the sides to try and stay on.

My heart was beating in my throat; we had come this far... It can't be over now. It can't...

I lied down as best as I could, the tips of my hair brushing the churning waters. I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was sleep...

* * *

_I was standing in the middle of my field, looking over the crops planted there. There were yams and eggplants; it must be Fall. As I was doing so a little girl with curly pink hair a big brown eyes came running up towards me._

"_Auntie Chelsea! Auntie Chelsea!" she squealed. There was a pink watering can shaped like an elephant in her hand._

_Auntie Chelsea... I've heard that before... I just can't remember where..._

"_Mommy told me to come help you with your plants!" the little girl said cheerfully. "I even brought my own watering can!"_

_She held up the elephant watering can to show me._

_I smiled. "Really?" I heard myself ask. My voice didn't sound like mine, though; it sounded distant and far away._

_The girl nodded, her pink curls bouncing up and down cheerfully._

* * *

Something slimy crawled up my back and I shivered, opening my eyes. Sitting upright, a long piece of seaweed fell onto the sand beneath me. Looking around, I noticed I was sitting on a beach, a white trunk with gold clasps.

Had I actually fallen asleep during the storm? Shaking my head, grains of sand flew out of my hair.

The storm was over now, though. The sky was a bright red colour, and the sun was just beginning to poke over the horizon. _It must be early morning..._ I thought.

Something moved beside me, and I looked down to see Vaughn there, soaking wet and covered in sand. Gently, I shook him.

"Vaughn," I said. "Vaughn... Come on, wake up."

He stirred, and opened his eyes.

"Where are we...?" Vaughn mumbled, slowly getting up and rubbing his head.

I looked around again. "No idea..." I said. "Do you think... this could be the Sunshine Islands?"

He didn't answer; instead, he got to his feet and started walking around. I noticed he was a bit wobbly, and standing up I realized that the ground felt like it was moving. I blinked a few times and followed after Vaughn.

"Maybe," he finally concluded.

"Hey!" I cried suddenly, pointing ahead of us. "Look! There's a house!"

How had I not seen it before? It was only a few feet away. Vaughn and I walked off the beach towards the house, and found that it was surrounded by a bunch of other houses.

"It kind of looks like the Diner," I observed, standing in front of the yellow-roofed building. I turned around. "Whoa... It's Pierre's house!"

And sure enough, there was a little purple-roofed house with circular windows and a fork and knife crossed over the door.

"That means..." Vaughn said, and he started walking along the path.

"Taro... Chen..." I named off the houses as we passed; they were exact replicas of the houses from Sunny Island, just like Regis said.

We both stopped in front of a red-roofed building shaped like a barn. My heart was beating so quickly I wondered if Vaughn could hear it...

Together, the two of slowly made our way up to the door. My legs were shaking so terribly that I had to lean on Vaughn. Once we reached the wooden door with the familiar horse shoe hung on it, Vaughn reached out a shaky hand and knocked loudly on the door twice.

A few seconds later, footsteps could be heard inside and I could hear someone groggily muttering to themselves.

"Who could it be at this time of day...?" the person asked them self. "If it's Taro again I swear I'm gonna..."

There was a shocked silence as the door opened, followed by a loud scream.

**Me: Yayyy! Cliffhanger! *does another little dance* I wonder how long it'll take me to get the next chapter up... In the meantime, you can think about what's gonna happen next and who answered the door! :D**

**Please review!**


	19. Reunion

**I don't have anything to say in these Arthour's Notes anymore... :I**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Reunion

"What is it, what is it? What happened?"

Julia stood in shocked silence in front of us, wearing a light blue t-shirt and sweatpants. Mirabelle had just come tearing down the stairs wearing a dark blue nightdress and slippers, having heard Julia scream.

"Julia, what's—" Mirabelle froze at the doorway too, and stared at me and Vaughn. "Oh my god..."

We all stood there for a moment, not speaking. The sun was above the horizon now, washing everything in orange and gold.

"Chelsea...? Vaughn...?" Mirabelle asked suddenly, looking at the two of us.

I nodded. There was more silence... then Julia let out a huge scream and attacked me. She literally attacked me. She just jumped out at me and tackled me to the ground.

"Chelsea!" she screamed. "Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea!"

I laughed, and attempted to shove her off of me. When I managed to do so, Julia went for Vaughn next, except he managed to stay upright. Getting up and dusting myself off, I found myself being hugged by Mirabelle.

"Oh, Chelsea, we missed you so much, dear..." she said, smiling at me. "We had no idea if we'd ever see you and Vaughn again."

Looking closer at her, I realized she was crying.

"Don't cry, Mirabelle," I said. "We're alright. We found you. There's no reason to cry!"

Mirabelle nodded, and wiped her eyes. "I was just so worried..." she said quietly. "I thought that after Regis made you two innocent, you'd come back... But then that storm hit and we were forced to evacuate and move here... And they wouldn't let us back afterwards! Regis had bought the whole island!"

She wiped at her eyes again, and went to hug her nephew.

Once everyone had settled down, Mirabelle ushered us inside and started making coffee and hot chocolate. Julia disappeared for a while, and returned when Mirabelle was pouring me a cup of coffee.

Turning around in my seat to see Julia, I nearly dropped the mug.

She was carrying a little baby girl with wisps of wavy pink hair and big brown eyes. The baby was lying sleepily in Julia's eyes, moving her hands together.

"This," Julia said, sitting down across from me. "Is Aileen."

I put my hands to my mouth and smiled brightly at the baby. Aileen cooed a grabbed a lock of Julia's hair that had come free of her pony-tail, and started pulling lazily on it.

"Oh my God, Julia, she's adorable," I said, leaning forward to get a better at her. "She looks so much like Elliot... But she has your curly hair."

Julia smiled down at her daughter and kissed her forehead. Aileen let go off Julia's hair and grabbed her own feet instead, pulling them up into the air.

Vaughn sat in quietly beside me, staring at the baby girl. I guess he was thinking about Elliot; I was too. Putting my mug down and biting my lip, I clasped my hands together and willed myself to look Julia in the face.

"Julia..." I said quietly, but tell myself to speak louder. "I... We... Vaughn and I... We have to tell you something about Elliot."

The smile on Julia's face disappeared and is replaced by a look of terror.

"What is it?" she whispers, as if speaking loudly might make something bad happen. "He's not... dead is he?"

"No," I said hastily. "At least... we don't think so."

Julia's eyes widened and she looked on the verge of tears.

"D-Did you see h-him?" she stuttered, completely ignoring Aileen, who was fitfully begging for attention. "H-He disappeared when w-we were evacuated from t-the island... I haven't s-seen him s-since..."

"We did," I said, nodding solemnly. I felt sick, like I was going to throw up. "When we went to Sunny Island looking for you guys, we found him in the jungle, completely passed out..."

A tear rolled down Julia's cheek at this, and she made no move to wipe it away.

"So he started to look for where you guys had gone w-with us..." my voice faltered a bit, but I quickly regained it. "And then when we found out where you were... We went on a boat and... The storm... The boat crashed and we... we... we..."

I couldn't continue; my throat was contracting and I felt like bursting into tears. Vaughn finished for me.

"We lost Elliot." He said quickly, trying to get it over with. "He disappeared when everyone was trying to get off the boat."

Julia stared at us for a few moments, more tears falling down her cheeks. Then suddenly she let out a huge wail and buried her face in her hands. Mirabelle rushed forwards and took a shocked and scared Aileen from her daughter's hands, and rubbed Julia's back soothingly.

I felt a tear trickle down my own cheek, but quickly wiped away. I couldn't even begin to imagine how Julia felt; she had had an unplanned child while her best friend, cousin, and boyfriend were missing, and now she just got news that said boyfriend, and father of her child, may never see his daughter.

But then my stomach jumped, and I suddenly didn't feel as sad or sympathetic anymore.

Why?

Because I knew that the Witch Princess was going to turn back time to before all of this happened, and everything would turn out fine.

Just fine.

* * *

I woke up at dawn the next day to Aileen crying in her room upstairs. I had slept on the couch in Mirabelle's living room that night, the one I had crashed into on several occasions while running excitedly into the Animal Shop before it was moved.

Rubbing my eyes tiredly, I sat up and smiled to myself. It felt so good to be back with Mirabelle and Julia and everyone else... We had spent the previous day going around and greeting everyone. Mirabelle told Felicia what we knew about Elliot, and the poor woman nearly had an anxiety attack. We were so busy the whole day Vaughn and I hadn't had the chance to even get near Witch Princess's hut.

But today was the day. And I was going to make it like that, one way or another.

I jumped off the couch and quickly changed. Mirabelle had brought me had brought me to an island yesterday, Ranch Island, that was just above the one she and Julia lived on, Verdure Island. It looked a lot like my ranch from Sunny Island; it had the same huge field, blue-roofed barn, green-roofed chicken coop, and red-roofed house. But there was also a windmill and pond on this ranch, and a small dock on the east side with a boat.

"I thought you might like to take over this ranch," Mirabelle said when she showed it to me. "Mark wanted it, but I convinced him to wait until Spring, just in case you arrived. He wasn't too happy about, but agreed and muttered something about not letting him have a chance." She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

I had agreed to take over the ranch; my first official day there was to be today. Luckily it was still early enough in the season to plant some Fall crops, and Mirabelle said she'd stop by in a few days with a free cow.

Thinking about the cow made me think of Ella, and what might have happened to her. I was nearly positive she had died in that storm; people obviously came before animals when evacuating a place.

Sighing, I re-zipped my suitcase and wheeled it out of the living room, placing it beside the front door before joining everyone else in the kitchen for breakfast.

Aileen was sitting in her pink-polka dotted high chair sucking contently on a bottle, Mirabelle was at the stove cooking, and Vaughn and Julia were talking.

"No!" Julia cried as I sat down. "Seriously? I didn't know Grandma had a sister!"

Mirabelle froze at the stove. "Jennifer..." she said softly.

Julia spun around in her chair. "That was her name?" she asked. "Why didn't you tell me about my 'Great-Aunt Jennifer'?"

"What?" Mirabelle asked, trying to pretend like she didn't know what Julia was talking about. "I never said _anything_ about anyone named Jennifer."

"You just whispered it!" Julia said. "I heard you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mirabelle said defiantly, keeping her eyes focused on the stove.

"Yeah, you did!" Julia said loudly. "Why are you denying it? What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing," Mirabelle snapped. "She was just... well, let's just say Jennifer expressed her opinions very... eccentrically, and didn't get along with a lot of people."

"So her name _is _Jennifer!" Julia yelled, making all of us, even Aileen, jump.

"Yes, yes, all right!" Mirabelle said, turning around with a frying pan grasped in one head and a wooden spoon in the other. "Jennifer was my mother's sister. Nobody in the family really liked her; they just put up with her. The last time I saw her was when she was visiting you when you were a baby." She pointed at Julia with the wooden spoon. "Her husband was dead by then and all her kids had moved out. I think being alone was really starting to get to her head because she acted like she hadn't seen people for over a decade!"

Mirabelle sniffed, annoyed, and served everyone a fried egg from the frying pan. Aileen banged her hands on the tray of her high chair, her bottle hanging out of her mouth, asking for some too, but Julia shook her head and went to get something for Aileen out of the fridge.

Mirabelle sat down at the table beside her granddaughter and started eating.

"I don't know what happened to her after that," she continued. "And frankly, I don't care to know. So don't bother telling me."

Vaughn and Chelsea exchanged looks, and Julia came back with a small container of baby food and a spoon.

**Me: Did ya like it? :D I disposed of my original idea for a sequel because it was over-used and cliche, and found a new idea. :) Which I think is even better. I've tried it before and it failed, but that was because I wasn't as big a fan of that story as this one... :P**

**Please review!**


	20. The Clock Strikes

**Yes, I am still alive. I have been this whole time. I've just been too lazy to update... -.- Except for the last three weeks; I was on vacation. So then I had an excuse! But I don't now, and school's starting on Tuesday, so I decided I might as well get this chapter up before then. :)**

**Anyways, hopefully you guys'll forgive me for disappearing off the face of the earth. :3 I'll try to be way more active with my stories.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

The Clock Strikes

Vaughn and I stood outside Mirabelle's house, hand-in-hand. We had told her we wanted to go check out the islands, and luckily she had to stay and man the store instead of going with us, and Julia needed to take care of Aileen.

I started walking towards the boat dock and Vaughn quickly started walking alongside. Natalie was outside her house raking leaves, and I could hear muttering under her breath. Charlie and Eliza were playing around in front of Chen's Shop, throwing leaves up in the air and building piles to jump into. I smiled at them, and continued on past the local Diner and Pierre's house. Glancing inside the window, I could see the short blonde man busy at work in his kitchen.

When we reached the boat dock, Vaughn and I clambered inside.

"Where to?" Kirk, the boatman, asked.

"Mystic Islands, please," I said, gripping the edge of my seat.

Kirk nodded, and turned on the engine. It roared to life, and the three of us sailed away from Verdure Island. We passed by Volcano Island, a small island that was home to, of course, a volcano with a mine inside of it. Said volcano was calmly spewing lava, as Mirabelle had told me it always did. Kirk turned at the barren island, and continued left. I could see two islands grouped closely together and connected by a bridge in the near distance.

It didn't take long to reach the islands. After steering around some large rocks, Kirk landed us on the Mystic Islands dock. Vaughn and I climbed out, telling Kirk to come back for us in about an hour. Even though I knew he wouldn't need to.

The boatman nodded and sailed off, heading back to Verdure Island.

Vaughn and I walked up the dock towards the bridge connected the two islands, which was attached to the dock. Looking both ways, I saw a spring and Church on one island, and a mansion on the other. Mirabelle had explained the one with the spring and Church was named Harvest Goddess Island, and the one with the mansion was called Witch Princess Island, as people claimed a witch lived in the mansion. But hardly anyone ever saw her, and people were apparently too afraid to go visiting.

Taking in a deep breath, Vaughn and I started walking towards Witch Princess Island. The gentle tapping off our boots against the wood and the sudden calmness around us made the walk seem all the more longer.

And then, before I really even realized it, we were standing in front of the mansion's doorway. Reaching out a hand to knock, I felt as if I was back at Mirabelle's just last night. It seemed so long ago...

My fist tapped the door lightly, but hard enough for it to be heard. I tapped again, this time a bit louder.

A few seconds later, something could be heard shuffling around inside. Then footsteps. A slit suddenly appeared in the doorway, and behind it pinkish-red eyes.

"Oh, it's you Chelsea," a voice said. It sounded a little bored. The slit disappeared and the door swung open, revealing Witch Princess. "I knew you'd show up here soon. And Vaughn's with you, of course."

I nodded. "Yeah, Witch Princess," I said. "Can we talk?"

"Sure," Witch Princess said, opening the door wide to let us in. "I've got nothing else important to do."

Vaughn and I stepped over the threshold and into Witch Princess's house. Closing the door behind her, she swept past us to the middle of the room, where there was a giant teddy bear sitting on a fancy purple carpet.

"So," the witch began, leaning on the giant bear. "What do you want?"

"To turn back time," I said flatly. Why be blunt? There's no point.

Witch Princess raised an eyebrow at me. "You want to _turn back time_?" she questioned, standing up straighter.

I nodded again.

"Why?"

"Because of all the stuff that's been happening to me since Winter," I said. "I want to get rid of it all. Like it was just a bad dream."

"Time is a very serious and complex subject," Witch Princess said, all the boredom in her voice disappearing. "Even the tiniest mistake can mess up the entire world!"

"Yeah, I know," I said.

"Do you?"

The curly blonde turned on her heel and walked towards the large bookcase that lined the whole back wall of her house. After searching for a moment, she pulled out a book.

"I've done so much as turn time back a few minutes," she continued. "Never whole _seasons_! And three, at that!"

"Can you at least try?" I begged. "Please?"

The witch sighed. "There's no trial-and-error in the subject of time," she explained. "You either do it right the first time, or everything gets messed up with almost no chance of reversing it. Besides, things happen for a reason."

I crossed my arms and frowned. "Just do it." I said. "Please, please, please, please?" I uncrossed my arms and put them at my sides.

Witch Princess pursed her lips together. She opened the book she had been holding and scanned through it, looking for something. A few moments later, I decided she must have found it as she was no longer skimming through pages but reading one and muttering something.

"Fine," she said after what seemed like forever. "But if anything goes wrong I'm placing all the blame on _you_."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever!" I said, with a wave of my hand.

"When I turn back time, no one will remember anything,"

"Wait! Can you make sure to keep my, Vaughn, Vaughn's brother Jonathon, and my sister Jill's memories intact?" I asked.

The Princess frowned. "I'll try." She said, nodding. She spread her feet apart and held the book in front of her, balancing it on one hand.

I reached for Vaughn's hand, and he grabbed it, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Closing my eyes and feeling extremely cliché, Witch Princess began reciting what was in the book. Vaughn's hand remained tightly closed around mine, and I took in deep breaths.

_This is it,_ I thought. _Soon all of this will be a memory that never happened..._

The next thing I knew, it was silent. Completely and utterly silent, like it had been on the bridge outside. Except there had been the silent sound of wind and water and leaves outside. Now there was nothing. And then...

There was noise again.

And not just any noise. Talking. People around us were talking. I recognized the voices. Hardly believing it, I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on Mirabelle's couch on Sunny Island, covered in a thick wool blanket beside Vaughn, listening to Mirabelle talk to Jonathon.

**I have a few ideas for some songfics. I'll probably be using songs by Paramore (I've gone into a recent obsession with them). I must get myself known to the new users! Haha, yeah. ^o^**


	21. I Hate Dreams

**Um... Here's a new chapter for you all... So... yeah... Read it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

I Hate Dreams

I blinked a few times. And then again. Nothing happened. This was real. It had worked! Witch Princess had done it! And she had managed to keep our memories!

I looked over at Vaughn. He had the same bewildered look as I probably did, and was also blinking as if he didn't believe it was real. I then looked at Jonathon. He looked absolutely and positively shocked. Smiling, I winked at him, and he smiled back.

Mirabelle looked at all three of us, her eyebrow raised.

"What is wrong with you three?" she asked. "You look like you've just seen a ghost or something."

* * *

That night, I had an odd dream about the Witch Princess. I was going to go care for Ella, but when I opened the barn door all it led to was a dark bottomless pit. Floating in the middle of the pit was Witch Princess. Her eyes were completely red, and her hair was floating around her.

"Chelsea Smith!" her voice boomed. It sounded deeper, and much louder. "You have decided to play with time and space, and undo that which was meant to happen! To counter this, something bad and equally-terrible will happen to you, and all of those who were involved!"

Then there was a big flash of light, and I woke up.

* * *

The next morning, I got a call from Jill.

"Chelsea!" she cried as soon as I picked up. "What the heck happened! I was just watering my crops yesterday and then _bam_! I'm sitting in front of my TV watching the weather and eating supper and it's the middle of freaking _winter_!"

"I got Witch Princess to turn back time!" I cooed in a sing-song voice. "And she managed to keep mine, Vaughn's, Jonathon's, and your memories!"

"Well you could've at least _warned_ me before you decided to go around screwing with time and making sure _my_ memory stays untouched!" Jill snapped.

I frowned. "Well sorry for not asking your permission before telling a witch to turn back time!" I yelled. As soon as I said it, I realized how stupid it sounded.

There was silence on the other end, and then Jill burst out laughing.

"Wow, Chelsea!" she said, giggling. "I guess it doesn't really matter that much. But if you mess with my memory like that again, I swear I'll hurt you."

With that said, my little sister hung up.

I sighed and put the phone away. Going over to the door, I grabbed my coat and slipped on my boots. Once I was outside, I stared at the barren, snow-covered field around me and imagined that huge mansion sitting on top of it. Shaking my head, I sighed once again and walked over to the barn, where Ella was still peacefully sleeping.

It was great to have my cow again. When that storm hits, which I'm sure it will, I'm going to make sure to save her. After feeding and brushing her, I made my way back outside and brushed the snow off a stump in the field before sitting down on it.

_I wonder what they dream meant, or if it meant anything at all..._ I thought, placing my head in my hands and tapping a finger against my cheek, staring at the ground. _Why did she mean by "to counter it, something bad and equally terrible will happen"?_

Before I could ponder this further, I heard feet crunching snow, and looked up to see Vaughn and Jonathon walked towards me. I stood up and, smiling, ran towards them and grabbed them both in a hug. We hadn't had the chance to talk at Mirabelle's, as Mirabelle and Julia were around and they would've thought we were crazy.

"How did you convince the Witch Princess to do it?" Jonathon asked when I pulled away.

I shrugged. "I just begged and asked her a bunch of time." I said. "But last night I had this weird dream..." Sitting down on another stump, I told the two about my dream.

"I had the same dream," Vaughn said when I finished.

There were a few seconds of silence, and then Jonathon let out a failed stifled laugh. It was actually more of an awkward snort.

Vaughn and I both looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Wait, wait..." Jonathon said, giggling like a school-girl. "You had a dream... where you were _Chelsea_ and—"

He was cut off by Vaughn thwacking him upside the side.

"No, you dumb-ass!" he yelled, glaring at his younger brother. "You know, sometimes I seriously worry about you!"

"I didn't know had the capability to _feel_ and _worry_," Jonathon shot, rubbing the back of his head. "Bastard..."

"Ass-hole..."

"Son of a bitch."

"Piece of shit."

"Fu—!"

I sighed and crossed my arms.

"Are you two done here?" I said loudly. "Or do I need to get your aunt to settle this little dispute?"

Both Vaughn and Jonathon began pouting like two little boys who had just gotten in trouble with their mother.

"Good," I said. "Now, Vaughn, you were saying?"

"I had the same dream you did," Vaughn said, quickly getting rid of the sulky look on his face. "The one with Witch Princess."

I nodded. "What d'you think it means?"

Vaughn shrugged.

"She said something about 'you have decided to play with time and space'," I said. "Maybe she's talking about when we asked her to turn back time..."

Vaughn shrugged again.

"But Witch also said 'to counter this, something equally-terrible with happen to you and all those who were involved'." I continued.

Vaughn sighed and rubbed his temples. "It was probably nothing," he said. "Just a dream... And if you _really_ think it means something, let's talk about it later. Okay...?"

I pursed my lips together and nodded, breathing deeply out of my nose. I was thoroughly convinced the dream had meant something, but as there was really no one to talk about it with, I just decided to let it be.

**Sh'yieah...**


End file.
